Investment - Articles - PIMFA on intervention from the FCA on online financial harms

 PIMFA, alongside Which? UK Finance, The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, The Carnegie Trust and others continue to believe that the best way to protect consumers from fraud perpetrated by organised criminals and increasingly carried out online is through the inclusion of financial harm in the Government’s upcoming Online Safety Bill, which we expect to be included in the Queen’s Speech next month.

 Liz Field, Chief Executive of PIMFA commented: “The financial services industry has along with charities, consumer campaigners and others such as the Financial Services Compensation Scheme called for financial harm to be included in the Online Safety Bill for some time.

 “Importantly, now the UK’s financial services regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, is calling on the Government to do more to protect consumers from financial harm. This is a welcome and much needed intervention and shows the strength of the case for including financial harm in the Online Safety Bill.

 "Nikhil Rathi is absolutely right to call for the Government to take action to provide better financial protection for consumers online and call for online search and social media firms to take greater responsibility for protecting consumers too.

 “The Online Safety Bill is one of the clearest ways to provide a legal framework that provides consumers with greater protection from online fraud that is being carried out every day by organised criminals, with the proceeds from such frauds being used to fund their other activities.

 “PIMFA and our partners in this campaign continue to urge the Government to reconsider including financial harm in the Online Safety Bill. Doing so would save thousands of potential victims suffering enormous distress and would be one of the best possible ways to disrupt organised crime.”