Proposals to compensate UK victims of hundreds of millions of pounds of scams are “fundamentally flawed” and are taking too long to implement, MPs said in a report published on Monday.
Customers duped into sending money to fraudsters will have to make refunds to banks within 48 hours under the plans drawn up by the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) introduced in September.
So-called “authorized push payment” scams have become the UK’s biggest type of payment fraud and cost customers £583 million ($715 million) in 2021.
MPs on Britain’s powerful Treasury Select Committee criticized the plans and said compulsory reimbursement should start this year at the latest, not the end of 2024.
The committee said PSR’s proposal for Pay.UK – which operates the UK’s rapid payments system – would lead to an “inherent conflict of interest” in handling reimbursements, as it is guaranteed by the financial services industry.