On 3 October 2024, HM Treasury (HMT) published a final draft of the Payment Services (Amendment) Regulations 2024, which are intended to allow payment service providers (PSPs) to slow down the processing of outbound payments when there are reasonable grounds to suspect fraud or dishonesty.
The draft Regulations are intended to support efforts to tackle authorised push payment (APP) fraud, where victims are unknowingly tricked into sending significant sums to fraudsters.
Under the draft Regulations, banks will be given new powers to delay and investigate payments that are suspected of being fraudulent, with the aim of helping to protect consumers against scammers. The maximum time that payments can be delayed will be extended by 72 hours where there are reasonable grounds to suspect a payment is fraudulent and more time is needed for the bank to investigate. This is intended to give banks more time to “break the spell woven by fraudsters over their victims” and tackle the estimated
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