Payment Systems Regulator responds to Sub-Committee scam reimbursement report

The Payment Systems Regulator's response to the Treasury Sub-Committee on Financial Services Regulations' Thirteenth Report was published on 14 June 2023 as the Sub-Committee's Sixth Special Report, HC 1500¹. The Thirteenth Report itself, titled "Scam reimbursement: pushing for a better solution", was published on 6 February 2023 as HC 939, and was produced under the Sub-Committee's inquiry into the authorised push payment fraud reimbursement scheme¹.

The Sub-Committee's publications list records the Sixth Special Report as the response to the Thirteenth Report, under the same inquiry into the authorised push payment fraud reimbursement scheme¹. The list gives the report's full title as "Scam reimbursement: pushing for a better solution: Payment Systems Regulator's response to the Committee's Thirteenth Report"¹.

The Sub-Committee has continued to take evidence and correspondence on the same inquiry since the response was published. A letter from Chris Hemsley, chief executive of the Payment Systems Regulator, relating to APP fraud and dated 15 May 2024, was published on 21 May 2024, and a letter from Pay.UK to the Chair relating to authorised push payment fraud, dated 17 May 2024, was published on 24 May 2024¹. Both sit under the inquiry into the authorised push payment fraud reimbursement scheme¹.

The publications list also records later work by the Sub-Committee: its Eighteenth Report, "The work of the Sub-Committee on Financial Services Regulations", was published on 6 July 2023 as HC 952-ii, and its Fourth Report under the same title was published on 1 February 2024 as HC 496¹. The Sub-Committee states that it does not look at individual cases or specific complaints¹.

Why it matters for households

The reports concern the authorised push payment reimbursement scheme, which governs when banks refund people who are tricked into sending money to a fraudster by bank transfer. The Sub-Committee's inquiry examined that scheme, and the Payment Systems Regulator, which sets the rules for the UK's payment systems, responded to the Sub-Committee's recommendations¹.

The publications list does not set out the contents of the regulator's response, the recommendations it addresses, or any change to reimbursement rules or their timing. Those details have not been reported here. The list also does not state what the 2024 correspondence from the regulator and Pay.UK says about APP fraud¹.

For households, the practical effect of any reimbursement rule depends on the Payment Systems Regulator's requirements and on how banks apply them, and on whether a firm involved is authorised on the Financial Services Register. The Sub-Committee's role sits within parliamentary scrutiny of financial services regulation, alongside the work of HM Treasury and the rules that apply after Brexit.

What happens next

The publications list records no further special report responding to the Thirteenth Report beyond the Sixth Special Report of 14 June 2023¹. It records the 2024 correspondence on APP fraud from the regulator and Pay.UK, published in May 2024, as the most recent items on that inquiry in the list¹. No next steps on the reimbursement scheme are set out in the list.