Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to help encourage banks to boost their cybersecurity in order to protect customers from online fraud.

The Financial Authorities (HM Treasury, the Bank of England, Prudential Regulation Authority, and the Financial Conduct Authority) work together to assess, test and improve the operational resilience, including cyber resilience, of the UK financial sector. The financial sector also benefits from a dedicated team within the National Cyber Security Centre, who work closely with the Financial Authorities, and law enforcement where appropriate.

In July 2018, the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority published a joint Discussion Paper on an approach to improve the operational resilience, including cyber resilience, of firms and financial market infrastructures.

The Financial Authorities have a single mechanism, the Authorities Response Framework, to coordinate a response to incidents affecting the finance sector. The Financial Authorities regularly exercise cyber incident response frameworks with the sector to assess their effectiveness and identify improvements. The Bank of England held a sector resilience exercise (SIMEX18) in November 2018 which tested the joint response by public authorities and industry to a simulated disruption.

It has also been made easier for customers to report fraud or cybercrime to law enforcement. Action Fraud is the UK’s reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, providing a central point of contact for information about fraud and financially motivated internet crime.