Launch of Confirmation of Payee

ABA CEO Anna Bligh: Well, here we are on the front line of the fight against scams. This is one of Australia’s largest banks, and the team of people here talking with customers, trying to protect customers and fight against scammers. Today, here we are launching a new piece of technology called Confirmation of Payee. This is a new weapon in the fight against scammers. It will provide better protection for Australia’s customers, and what it means is that, for the first time, you will be able to check the name and stop the scam when you are transferring money to pay a bill or to send money to your children, for example. Here we have a new initiative that will protect Australians in the fight against scams. This is an initiative that has been pulled together by all Australian banks, from the smallest to the largest. It won’t matter which bank you bank with; you will have this protection. It is across the entire industry, from the smallest credit union to the largest bank. And as I said, it means no matter who you bank with, you will now have this protection that you haven’t had before. We anticipate that this will help drive down scam losses and mean that less customers are involved in a scam that damages their financial wellbeing. So, I’d like to introduce the Minister for Financial Services, Danel Mulino, who’s going to say a few words.

Minister for Financial Services Daniel Mulino: Thanks very much, Anna. Can I firstly acknowledge Anna Bligh, CEO of the ABA, and acknowledge also her work over a long period of time. I think this will be one of her last public appearances with the ABA. She’s led that organization for a long period, and I want to acknowledge all that she’s achieved. Can I also acknowledge Elizabeth Crouch from COBA and say that it’s really important today that we have both of those organisations, and as Anna indicated, the fact that we have the ABA and COBA here means that this initiative will cover all Australian users of banking services when it’s fully rolled out. And that’s really important. And can I also acknowledge that we have Australian Payments Plus here, which is incredibly important, because it’s world leading technology that underpins our payment system, that is going to give a really big step forward today that we’re announcing.

Can I also acknowledge Stephen Jones has worked over a long period of time, my predecessor. He, along with a lot of the key stakeholders who are here today, led world leading work on scams prevention, and that has already led to significant outcomes, and this is a step forward in the agenda that he pushed. In acknowledging Stephen’s work, I wanted to say that I’m very keen to continue that work, and one of the key aspects of the work that he and others pursued in the previous term is to see the prevention of scams as the work of a number of partners, including government, including the banking sector, including customer representatives and including the providers of the infrastructure, the payment system. And I think that ecosystem approach has been absolutely critical to the success that we’ve achieved today, and this is another example of that. This is an example of the banks all coming together, along with a strengthening of our payment system in such a way that it will deliver much better outcomes for consumers. This is a step forward in that ecosystem approach which has been so important in delivering a reduction in scams. And as Anna said, it’s very appropriate that we’re announcing this important reform here in a call centre where people are directly dealing with people’s questions and concerns around scams that might be affecting them.

The other thing I wanted to point out about today’s announcement, it is that it’s a very practical and consumer friendly step forward, where people are going to be sent messages that are very comprehensible. This Confirmation of Payee is going to be achieved in a way where people are sent flags: a green flag, for a payment that is appropriate and where the name matches up with the intended payer, an amber flag where there is a question mark and the consumer should have a second look, and a red flag where there are serious concerns. And I believe the way that this is set up is going to be very useful for consumers. It’s going to be very user friendly and simple, and that is absolutely critical when we talk about steps in the payment system. So I want to say that this is a very important step forward. I welcome this step forward by the banks, but also by Australian Payments Plus who has designed the technology. And I believe that this is yet another step, which is in a very important policy area, in the protection of consumers who are taking part in our trading system. So, thanks for the chance to be here to be a part of today’s announcement.

AP+ Chief Payments & Schemes Officer Adrian Lovney: Thank you. As the minister said, Confirmation of Payee is going live today. It’s rolling out across all Australian banks, and we anticipate that it will be available to the majority of Australians by the end of the year, and in fact, most of them by the end of this month. It ensures that customers are confident that they’re paying the person that they want to pay. It will help to reduce scams, particularly email redirection scams or investment scams, but also mistaken payments. When a customer is making a payment for the first time, they will enter the details of the person that they want to pay, and those details will be checked with the receiving bank. The customer will receive a message, either a match or a close match, or that there’s no match. In the case of a close match or a match, they will be shown the name of the account that they’re trying to pay. In the case of no match, they will not be shown those details. Confirmation of Payee will add a powerful level of protection for Australians to help them ensure that they’re paying the right person and to protect them. CoP was designed with privacy and data protection at its core, names are only shown to the payer where there is a match or a close match and there is no data held centrally. Finally, I want to acknowledge all of the banks and all of the team at Australian Payments Plus who work so effectively together to design this solution. It’s a really powerful example of what we can achieve when all organizations are working together to prevent scams and fraud losses. Thanks.

COBA Chair Elizabeth Crouch: Australia’s Customer Owned Banks and Mutual Banks are united in this fight against scams. As Anna said it’s a sectoral effort. We know that redirection scams last year, netted scammers $152 million and that is unacceptable, so we will use every tool within our arsenal, and this Confirmation of Payee is that next step, and an important step, which deals our customers back into the banking process. It allows them to pause and verify, and that is an important step of the protection against redirection scams. We are united, as I said, in this fight. We are united with the Scam Safe Cccord that we all signed previously, and this is another step in that process to continue to enliven that scams accord and attack scams directly.

Journalist: What kind of investment does this represent across the banks?

Anna Bligh: Australia’s banks have invested $100 million in this technology. It had to be designed from scratch. It had to apply to not only our biggest banks, but the smallest of our banks right across the sector. So, it’s a significant investment. In some countries that have had this technology for a couple of years, they’ve seen more than a 60% reduction in things like email redirection scams, where someone intervenes when, you know, hacks into when you try and pay, for example, a tradie and misdirects the payment. So, it’s going to be a very significant tool in the fight against scams.

Journalist: I was looking at the ACCC scam losses data compared to the first four months of 2023 they say this year, we’re down 38% is it because of coordinated efforts like this that those results are being seen?

Anna Bligh: Australia is one of the few places in the world that is seeing a significant decline in the amount of money being lost to scams, and it’s only happening because we are seeing all banks cooperate. Banks cooperating with government, with regulators, with our telcos and with social media platforms, and we need to do more of that. This is a very significant step forward, but there needs to be more in the future.

Ends

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