Authorised Push Payment (APP) Fraud
Our most recent work has focused on Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud, which we identified costs the UK economy up to £3bn a year. In March 2025, we published our first report highlighting both the progress made through innovations such as biometric ID, two-factor authentication, and transaction monitoring, and the serious challenges that remain. Losses to APP fraud are far higher than previously reported, victims are making more payments before scams are detected, and banks are struggling to process compensation claims under a scheme already reduced from £415.000 to £85,000. To enable an effective response, we called for coordinated, cross-sector action to disrupt fraud operations.
In our second report in July 2025, we laid out clear, tangible and practical next steps to combat fraud by reviewing the latest Mandatory Reimbursement Requirement (MRR) of the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR). These include reviewing the £85,000 compensation cap, strengthening fraud prevention, improving consistency in implementation, addressing burdens on smaller providers, and enhancing data sharing. Beyond the MRR, we urged the Government to close reimbursement gaps, improve business protections, reform policing and justice, foster international cooperation, and expand public awareness. Together these reports provide a practical blueprint with broad support for tackling APP fraud in a comprehensive and collaborative way.
Access the reports here.
The role of the APPG in compensation for victims of the HBOS Reading fraud:
On the day that the verdicts were handed down in the trial of the HBOS Reading fraudsters, the APPG’s chair, George Kerevan, and director of policy, Heather Buchanan of Athena, met with Lloyds Banking Group (LBG). From the outset the Bank attempted to present HBOS Reading as a legacy problem for which they had no responsibility.
Over the following days, weeks and years, through changes of APPG Chair and government, working with victims, their representatives and the SME Alliance, the Athena Foundation has ensured that the issue of compensation for victims remained on the agenda and that the failure of the original review scheme for customers affected by the fraud, the “Griggs Review”, was brought to light. We were major contributors to the Cranston Review which found “both in structure and in implementation, [the process for providing direct and consequential loss to victims] was neither fair nor reasonable”.
A key stakeholder in the re-review process based on Cranston’s recommendations, the APPG attempted to work constructively with the Foskett Panel and the other stakeholders, SME Alliance and LBG, to speed up the delivery of redress to affected victims. This led to the introduction of the £3million fixed sum award as a pragmatic alternative to customers preparing a detailed claim, following which there was a dramatic upturn in the number of customers receiving compensation. However, the APPG has also been robust in its criticism of the Panel’s approach and apparent lack of urgency where it considers victims are being failed and continues to hold it to account while victims remain uncompensated.