On 17 October 2025, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published findings from a multi-firm review into how firms detect and prevent romance fraud.

Background

The FCA explained that romance fraud involves people being convinced they are in a relationship and deceived into sending money to criminals.

As part of this review, the FCA looked at the approach of six payment service providers (PSPs), including retail banks and payment firms, focusing on how firms detect and prevent romance fraud, and support victims.

Key findings

The FCA set out examples of good practice and areas for improvement, including:

  • Detection and monitoring: The FCA found that in some cases firms’ detection systems deferred high-risk payments or used various data points effectively to improve their ability to detect suspicious transactions. However, it also identified multiple instances of firms missing opportunities to identify seemingly suspicious transactions.
  • Internal investigative approaches and staff capabilities: The FCA also found that most firms adopted a victim-centred approach, engaged in timely sharing of information, and took proactive steps to prevent further harm by adding confirmed fraudulent beneficiaries to blocklists. However, the FCA also identified an inconsistent approach to payment types considered in investigations (e.g. not considering faster payments such as cash withdrawals) and that some staff failed to spot red flags, such as unusual customer behaviour.
  • Customer engagement and support: The FCA considered that effective engagement with victims was a consistent theme across firms demonstrating good practice, but that there were instances where safeguarding cases were not escalated properly.
  • Treatment of customers in vulnerable circumstances: The FCA observed that many firms took steps to understand circumstances leading to customer vulnerability and therefore to tailor support and reduce re-victimisation. In terms of areas for improvement, the FCA found that many firms were unaware of such vulnerabilities until after fraud occurred, limiting the use of preventative measures.
  • Education and awareness: The FCA identified that most firms demonstrated meaningful efforts to help customers recognise and avoid fraud, particularly through targeted campaigns and educational resources, but that the reach and consistency of these varied.

Next steps

The FCA expects all PSPs to consider these findings and assess whether their own systems, controls and customer engagement practices are sufficient to prevent and respond to romance fraud.