All of the main retail banks and other important financial institutions pledge to help protect the public from becoming victims of fraud, do everything in their power to stop fraudsters from operating and catch the criminals behind the crime

The Home Secretary today (Wednesday, 10 February) announced a new taskforce to crack down on fraud in the UK, saying that "fraud shames our financial system".

The Joint Fraud Taskforce will be made up of made up of key representatives from Government, law enforcement and the banking sector. The Taskforce will create a new era of collaboration, resulting in shared intelligence, a unified response and greater awareness of the risk of fraud among consumers.

The Taskforce will include the City of London Police, National Crime Agency, Financial Fraud Action UK, the Bank of England, Cifas and CEOs of the major banks. 

At a roundtable attended by key sector bodies and co-chaired by the Lord Mayor and the Home Secretary, members came together to sign a declaration of their commitment to tackling fraud and reducing its devastating impact.

Setting out the work for the new Taskforce, the Home Secretary will say:

"Our economy relies on the financial system and everyone in this country benefits from its global success. But the scale and volume of financial activity also brings serious risks of economic crime and real opportunities for criminals to defraud hardworking taxpayers of their savings and earnings.

"Fraud shames our financial system. It undermines the credibility of the economy, ruins businesses and causes untold distress to people of all walks of life. For too long, there has been too little understanding of the problem and too great a reluctance to take steps to tackle it.

"I am delighted to officially launch the Joint Fraud Taskforce, which will bring the collective powers, systems and resources of banks, payment providers, police, wider law enforcement and regulators to bear on this threat."

The work of the Taskforce will include:

  • Understanding the threat - working to identify key priorities for the Taskforce and spot intelligence gaps and vulnerabilities.
  • Collective response - fast-tracking intelligence sharing between banks and law enforcement for a more coordinated approach to serious and organised crime gangs, including the creation of a new top ten most-wanted fraudsters.
  • Victims and vulnerability - more efficient identification of victims and potential victims, including national roll-out of intervention training for bank staff.
  • Behaviour change - finding out why victims fall prey to fraud and helping to raise awareness of the steps they can take to protect themselves. 
  • Tackling systematic vulnerabilities - removing the weak links in systems and processes, which fraudsters can exploit.

Commissioner of the City of London Police, Ian Dyson QPM said:

"The City of London Police has learnt that the key to combating fraud is Government, law enforcement and business working together to not only bring criminals to justice but also design out the opportunities for them to commit crime in the first place.

"The Fraud Taskforce is key to this and brings a new impetus to the ongoing work we already do to protect victims and pursue criminals.

"Together we can make the UK a safer place and reduce the estimated £30 billion cost of fraud to the UK economy."

Ashok Vaswani, Chief Executive of Barclays Personal & Corporate Banking, said:

"Fraud leaves a devastating impact on people and businesses, which is why the UK's banks are determined to stop these scammers and eradicate this crime. I welcome this new Joint Fraud Taskforce which will support even greater efforts by banks, police and government to combat these crimes together.

"At Barclays we believe even one fraud is one too many. Our role is to raise awareness of scams including through our current TV advertising campaign, and to help customers by arming them with knowledge on how to stay secure."

Lord Mayor Jeffrey Mountevans said:

"We all recognise the importance of the financial services sector working in partnership with the police and other law enforcement agencies in preventing and combating cybercrime. We are particularly proud of the City of London Police, but they know, as we all do, that there remains a significant gap in tackling volume fraud crime. 

"We stand with the Government and welcome the commitment of the banks and wider businesses to the taskforce. Their expertise and approach is critical. Business plans require the identification, measurement and mitigation of risk and the City's pre-eminent business cluster can help tackle this particular global threat."

This new Taskforce will build on ongoing work across the financial sector and law enforcement to protect consumers, such as the Dedicated Card and Payments Crime Unit, where police work alongside industry fraud investigators to disrupt fraudsters and secure convictions.

The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, operated by the City of London Police, is also helping to identify established and emerging frauds and those who are committing them.

The collaborative approach has proved successful in tackling other forms of financial crime. The Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce (JMLIT), launched last year, has already had a positive impact on tackling high-end money laundering. 

Through working together, JMLIT members have developed cases, identified and closed banks accounts, obtained 50 new court orders and made numerous arrests. It is a clear demonstration of what can be achieved in a relatively short space of time when the industry, police and government come together with a common aim.