UK Finance Chief Warns Tech Giants to Confront Expanding Fraud Crisis

UK Finance has issued its strongest admonition yet to major global tech platforms, with chief executive David Postings urging Silicon Valley to “grasp the scale of the crisis” and significantly ramp up efforts to curb fraud proliferating across their networks. Addressing delegates at the Economic Crime Congress 2025, Postings described an escalating epidemic of financial crime in the UK—one that he argued no single industry can tackle alone.

Although banks are committing record sums to compliance, enforcement and intelligence, Postings stressed that most fraud originates not in the financial system but on social media and telecoms platforms. “The fight against economic crime is a team effort,” he said. “Industry, government, regulators, civil society and law enforcement all have a role. But some sectors are simply not pulling their weight.”

Fraud now constitutes more than 40 per cent of all UK crime, with criminals stealing £629.3m in the first half of 2025—an increase of three per cent from the previous year. More than two million incidents were logged over the same period, marking a 17 per cent surge. Despite this growth, banks remain the only part of the fraud chain legally required to reimburse victims of APP scams, in which individuals are deceived into making payments to criminals. Postings likened the imbalance to “asking your goalkeeper to save every shot because the outfield players are asleep.”

UK Finance estimates that its members are collectively spending £38bn annually on compliance, with much of the cost driven by money-laundering regulations. Postings endorsed the Treasury’s plan to modernise those rules and welcomed the higher reporting threshold for Suspicious Activity Reports, saying the changes will help firms focus on high-value intelligence rather than excessive paperwork. However, he warned that new obligations, including those under the Public Authorities Fraud, Error and Recovery Act, risk diverting banks into policing benefits fraud instead of pursuing the sophisticated organised networks fuelling the country’s economic-crime escalation.

“We need a system focused on the largest risks and threats,” he said, adding that such an approach supports the Chancellor’s broader agenda for competitiveness and growth in the financial sector.

Even so, Postings acknowledged recent advances in fraud prevention. The Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit has prevented more than £75m from being stolen this year and taken down 120 organised crime groups, an all-time high. Meanwhile, the Banking Protocol—an initiative linking branch staff directly with law enforcement—has blocked £400m in fraud since its inception. But with 66 per cent of APP fraud originating online and a further 17 per cent stemming from telecoms channels, he emphasised that intervention must occur at the source of criminal activity, not merely when banks process payments. “This cannot remain something we would merely like to see because it is fair,” he warned. “It is a national security issue.”

By fLEXI tEAM