Committee publishes Payment Systems Regulator response on scam reimbursement

The Treasury Sub-Committee on Financial Services Regulations published the Payment Systems Regulator's response to its Thirteenth Report on scam reimbursement on Wednesday 14 June 2023¹. The document is the committee's Sixth Special Report, numbered HC 1500 (2022-23)¹. It sits within the committee's inquiry into the authorised push payment fraud reimbursement scheme, a work package the committee lists as running from Wednesday 7 December 2022 to Thursday 30 May 2024¹.

The Thirteenth Report it responds to is titled "Scam reimbursement: pushing for a better solution" and was published on 6 February 2023 as HC 939². The regulator's response was published on 14 June 2023 as HC 1500². The committee's publications list records the response under the same title as the special report, describing it as the Payment Systems Regulator's response to the committee's Thirteenth Report².

The inquiry has taken evidence from the bodies that operate the payments and complaints systems. On 13 December 2022 the committee heard oral evidence from Chris Hemsley, then Managing Director at the Payment Systems Regulator, Abby Thomas, Chief Executive and Chief Ombudsman at the Financial Ombudsman Service, and David Pitt, Chief Executive at Pay.UK; the transcript was published on 14 December 2022². The committee states that it does not look at individual cases or specific complaints².

The published record also lists later correspondence on the same inquiry: a letter from Sir Dave Ramsden of the Bank of England dated 8 June, published 21 June 2023, relating to APP fraud and CHAPS payments; a letter from Chris Hemsley, by then Chief Executive of the Payment Systems Regulator, dated 15 May 2024 and published 21 May 2024; and a letter from Pay.UK to the Chair dated 17 May 2024 and published 24 May 2024². The committee's publications page also records items published on 21 May 2024 and 24 May 2024².

Why it matters for households

Authorised push payment fraud is the scam in which someone is tricked into sending money from their own bank account to a fraudster, and the question of who refunds the victim has been the subject of this committee inquiry². The special report sets out the regulator's formal answer to the committee's recommendations, so it is the point at which the regulator's position on reimbursement becomes part of the public record¹. The committee's work package on the reimbursement scheme ran to 30 May 2024¹, and the correspondence published in 2024 concerns APP fraud and CHAPS payments². The sources do not set out the contents of the regulator's response, the reimbursement rules themselves, or any start date for a scheme, so those details have not been reported here. Background on how transfer refunds work is set out in our guide to authorised push payment reimbursement, and the regulator's wider remit is covered in our page on the Payment Systems Regulator.

What happens next

The committee's publications list records the inquiry's work package as ending on Thursday 30 May 2024¹. No further steps arising from the special report are set out in the published record beyond the correspondence dated 2024².