Fintech Australia backs government’s scam prevention plan

Editorial

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The proposed Scams Prevention Network (SPN) is designed to introduce a “whole-of-ecosystem” approach to reducing online financial scams by increasing the obligations on banks, telcos and social media platforms to reimburse customers and to take preventative steps of their own. 

In 2023, the losses suffered by Australian consumers from scams totalled A$2.74bn. 

According to assistant treasurer Stephen Jones,  the new mandatory codes will make Australia “the toughest target in the world for scammers”.

“There’ll be new obligations on social media platforms in the codes of practice to ensure that they’re confirming the identity of the people who are advertising on those platforms to ensure that the criminals don’t have an easy means of publishing their fake investment materials,” he said.

The bill is set to be introduced to parliament in November.

However, Fintech Australia has also added some recommendations of its own, adding that the government’s SPN will not solve the growing problem on its own.

These measures include using regulatory sandboxes to test the impact of the SPF on certain sectors; ensuring obligaitons are practical and proportionate to the consumer risk; introducing a more precise defintion of ‘scams’ and providing more clarity on how the anti-scam obligations interact with other laws such as anti money-laundering and privacy laws.