City calls on tech firms to tackle Britain's fraud epidemic

City calls on tech firms to tackle Britain's fraud epidemic

Briefly

"Under the plans, shared with City AM, consumers would verify their identity once with a trusted provider before reusing those credentials across banks and financial services firms, cutting duplication, speeding up onboarding, and making it harder for bad actors to exploit gaps between institutions."

"The City Corporation said the proposed system could unlock almost £5bn in economic benefits over five years by reducing fraud losses and improving digital infrastructure efficiency. The move comes as banks and regulators intensify pressure on tech platforms over the explosion of online scams fuelled by AI-generated adverts and deepfakes."

"Fraud now accounts for roughly 40 per cent of recorded crime in England and Wales, according to government figures, with most cases now cyber-enabled. The new digital ID system would act as a coordination layer between identity providers and financial institutions, allowing companies to verify identities without repeatedly collecting the same documents from their customers."

"Chris Hayward, policy chairman at the City of London Corporation, said fraud was costing banks more than £1bn annually. "Innovation enables new dangers - but it also solves them too", he said. "We're asking companies who can provide this infrastructure to step forward and lead the sector's fightback against fraud.""