On Wednesday 15 July 2020, the LSB launched a formal review of the Contingent Reimbursement Model Code for authorised push payment (APP) scams (the CRM Code). This review is being carried out to better understand how effective the Code has been one year on in achieving its objectives, as well as to understand the impact the Code has had on the volume of scams. The review will enable the continuous evolution of, and increased participation in, the Code. Today, 30 September 2020, the LSB announces that the CRM Code consultation period has now closed.
The consultation looked at four different areas including: implementation, customer experience, prevention measures, and resolving claims. The consultation was open to current Code signatories, other financial service firms, regulators, trade bodies and consumer representatives.
The responses to the consultation and work undertaken as part of the wider review will be used to inform any potential revisions to the Code in order to ensure its ongoing effectiveness.
Commenting on the consultation, Emma Lovell, Chief Executive at the LSB, said ‘Being a victim of a scam is a very stressful experience and therefore the Code must be as effective as possible. This requires careful monitoring and measurement. The review process enables us to get a 360 view of how the Code is operating, and allows us to analyse stakeholder feedback and, where needed, refine the Code to ensure it’s creating an effective environment for the industry to detect and prevent fraud and enabling a consistent approach to the treatment of customers who fall victim to APP scams. We will be carefully reviewing the industry’s feedback and setting out next steps in due course.’
The CRM Code sets out good industry practice for preventing and responding to APP scams, and provides a commitment to reimburse customers, where they were not to blame for a successful scam.
It launched on 28 May 2019 and is focused on:
- Providing increased protections against scams for consumers that weren’t in place previously
- Requiring firms to stay live to the evolving nature and sophistication of scams to protect customers
- Laying out a mechanism to reimburse customers who fall victim to a scam where they did everything they could to protect themselves against a scam
- Setting out a consistent approach for the management of cases where a scam is successful.
In addition to the Code itself, the review covers two sets of supporting documents: the Practitioners Guide, which is made available to signatories to the Code, and the Information for Customers document.
You can access the consultation document here. Findings of the CRM Code consultation will be published on the LSB website by the end of the year.*
The LSB is responsible for development of the Code to ensure that it delivers fair outcomes for consumers, and oversight of signatory firms to provide assurance that the Code is being adhered to, good practice is identified and generalised, and breaches are remedied.
*The LSB’s report on the findings of the review and any accompanying recommendations will now be published early next year. The report will take account of output from the LSB’s themed review on the Effective Warnings provisions of the Code which are due to be published in December 2020.
