On 15 November 2019, Pay.UK published a document outlining its conclusion that no industry consensus exists to finance a central fund to reimburse innocent victims of authorised push payment (APP) fraud.

Pay.UK is the operator of the Faster Payments, Bacs and cheque systems. On 26 July 2019, it received a change request from UK Finance on behalf of seven Faster Payments Service (FPS) Direct Participants, which proposed changing the FPS Rules for Participants so that they would be required to pay a contingent reimbursement model (CRM) fee. The monies generated through this CRM fee would be used to finance a central fund out of which victims of APP fraud in a “no-blame” situation could be reimbursed.

However, after reviewing the responses to a call for evidence issued on the proposal, Pay.UK has concluded that there is a lack of industry consensus for FPS Direct Participants to pay a CRM fee, as set out in the CRM Code for APP scams which came into effect in May 2019. Pay.UK calls on industry and regulators to come together to try to find a solution that provides peace of mind to customers and also meets the needs of different payment providers.