UK Fraud Strategy to widen firms’ duties to stop scams

The UK Fraud Strategy 2026–2029 will extend duties for banks, fintech firms, telecommunications providers and online platforms to surface and share early‑warning intelligence and counter AI‑driven impersonation and synthetic identity fraud.

A webinar on June 9 brought industry and security experts together to outline how the strategy will change operational expectations across the financial and digital economy. Participants included Robert Eastick, director and crypto lead at iSanctuary; Dr Roger Miles, a consulting behavioral analyst; Zaheer Jassat, vice president of product at Zepz; with Teresa Connors moderating. The discussion previewed topics scheduled for a larger conference on July 8 in London.

Panel participants said organisations will be expected to provide actionable signals from payment flows, digital identity checks, crypto market behavior and online activity to enable earlier intervention. They described faster cross‑sector collaboration and automated information exchange as central to detecting criminal innovation before funds are lost.

The session identified several rapidly growing threats. Criminals are exploiting real‑time payments systems, assembling synthetic identities from fragmented personal data, and using AI‑generated voices and deepfakes for impersonation. Participants also described increasingly automated laundering patterns that move funds across bank accounts, payment apps and crypto platforms.

Attendees outlined reasons current data‑sharing models fall short. Intelligence is fragmented across banks, fintechs, telcos and platforms; legal and technical standards vary between organisations; and many networks lack automation and trust frameworks needed for near‑real‑time exchange. These gaps, the panel said, slow detection and keep responses reactive.

Speakers described defensive technologies that can improve detection and response when deployed at scale and integrated across sectors. Predictive analytics, behavioral biometrics, tokenization and cloud‑native fraud platforms can identify anomalous patterns, strengthen credential flows and speed investigations. Suggestions for identity systems included combining lifecycle verification with continuous behavioral signals and provenance records for identity attributes.

Instant payments received specific attention because they remove the settlement window that previously allowed intervention. Panelists recommended clearer rules on liability, faster information exchange between payer and payee providers, and investments in real‑time fraud scoring and automated transaction throttling to stop suspicious flows while preserving user experience.

The discussion also covered emerging risks where digital assets and decentralized finance intersect with anti‑money‑laundering and fraud obligations. Automated DeFi protocols, cross‑chain bridges and opaque on‑ and off‑ramp services were identified as creating fast laundering paths. Participants raised quantum‑related risks to current cryptography and advised that organisations assess post‑quantum migration plans for key systems.

Practical priorities set out by panelists included aligning legal, compliance and engineering teams around a shared threat model; investing in interoperable technical standards and trusted data‑sharing frameworks; upgrading identity verification to include behavioral and tokenized attributes; and deploying cloud‑native analytics capable of processing payments and identity signals in near real time.

Speakers framed the strategy as a system‑wide change in operational expectations and urged firms to review controls for instant payments and crypto interactions, identify data gaps that hinder early detection and begin pilots of cross‑industry sharing mechanisms ahead of regulatory deadlines.