High St banks accused over fraud compensation record
One bank had only fully refunded 1% of victims while another had given 59% of victims all of their money back.
Banks were in the firing line again as a new report suggested that victims of fraud had a ‘woefully low’ chance of getting their money back.
Consumer group Which? found many fraud victims were treated unfairly and only 6% had received full reimbursement for any losses suffered.
The high street banks agreed to a voluntary code in May 2019 to repay fraud victims except in circumstances where the customer had either been “grossly negligent” or had ignored warnings from the bank.
The Consumers Association said its analysis found that one bank had only fully refunded 1% of victims while another had given 59% of victims all of their money back.
Gareth Shaw, the head of money at Which?, said: “The lack of fairness, consistency or transparency across the industry means the chances of people getting their money back is often a total lottery.”
The UK has seen a surge in scams in recent years especially authorised push payment (APP) scams where email accounts are hacked to get money sent to bogus bank accounts.
Too often, banks blame customers for not realising being scammed or ignoring warnings, Which? said.
The UK’s Payment Systems Regulator the code presumed customers should get their money back unless there were clear grounds for holding them liable.
Yesterday, reports suggested that PLC (), Natwest Group PLC () and other British banks were also facing another ‘second wave’ payment protection insurance (PPI) claims following new court rulings.
Previously, the banks were forced to pay out billions of pounds after being found to have mis-sold millions of PPI policies to their customers, sparking a wave of compensation claims.
The deadline for these passed in August last year, however, the new rulings mean even more people could be eligible.
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