Discussions are underway in the banking industry about introducing new payment fraud mitigation measures, as losses from payment scams mount, the Australian Banking Association says. ABA chief executive Anna Bligh said the industry is open to exploring initiatives, such as confirmation of payee arrangements and an SMS ID register, to reduce payment scams. Bligh was responding to the latest Australian Competition and Consumer Commission report on scam activity in Australia, which showed scam payments using bank transfers rose 63 per cent to A$210 million in 2022. In addition, payment redirection scams resulted in $225 million of losses. The ACCC has previously reported that bank impersonation scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated and hard to detect. It said recent reports to Scamwatch detail incidents where the scammer sends a text that appears in the same conversation thread as genuine messages. Others report contact from scammers who appear to be using a bank’s legitimate phone number. In total, the ACCC reported scams losses of $3.1 billion in 2022 – in increase of 80 per cent over the previous year. Its sources include Scamwatch, ReportCyber, the Australian Financial Crime Exchange, IDCARE, ASIC and other government agencies. The ACCC has been pushing for the introduction of confirmation of payee arrangements for some time. Under confirmation of payee, when a consumer or business sets up a new payee or amends an existing payee’s details, they receive a message from their bank confirming that the details entered match the account of the person or organisation they are paying. Consumers are told if the details are a “close match’ or not a match at all and advised to check before proceeding. The ACCC said the introduction of confirmation of payee in the UK in 2019 and the SMS SenderID register in Singapore have helped make payment systems safer. Bligh pointed out that Commonwealth Bank and Westpac have started trialling similar initiatives. Commonwealth Bank is working with Telstra on a project called Scam Indicator that detects if a customer is on a phone call when making a transaction and contacts the customer to ask them to make additional checks. Westpac has launched Westpac Verify, which alerts customers if there is a possible account name mismatch for payments to a BSB and account number via the New Payments Platform. Bligh said: “In Australia we have PayID, which has been in place for five years. We encourage customers to use it. PayID allows the person paying money to know who they are paying before they pay.” She said the ABA strongly supports the introduction of an SMS ID registry in Australia. The registry can help customers block scam SMS messages. While the ABA is open to the introduction of confirmation of payee arrangements, consumer groups are calling for tougher action. In response to the latest scam report, the Consumer Action Law Centre said the government should require banks to reimburse customers caught up in scams. CALC chief executive Stephanie Tonkin said: “The banking industry can lead the way to protect customers and stop scams but it will only do this if it is incentivised financially to do