The UK’s Payment Systems Regulator marked the first anniversary of its mandatory authorised push payment fraud reimbursement rule with figures that, for the first time, let the industry judge whether forcing banks to split the cost of scam reimbursements actually changes behavior. According to the PSR’s own one year review, £112 million was reimbursed to victims between October 2024 and June 2025, the reimbursement rate for claimed losses rose to 88 percent from 66 percent the prior year, and claim volumes fell 15 percent year over year even as the amounts paid out grew, which the PSR reads as firms catching more fraud before money leaves the account rather than merely paying out faster afterward.
Why it matters to the risk and payments leader: this is a rare case of a fraud liability rule producing a measurable, published before-and-after. PSR managing director David Geale called the reimbursement rate change a sign that consistent prevention and reimbursement “simply wasn’t happening” before the rule took effect. That is a direct rebuttal to the argument, made before implementation, that mandatory 50/50 liability splitting between sending and receiving institutions would mainly generate compliance cost without changing fraud outcomes, an argument undercut by how far banks have already rearchitected fraud defenses under similar liability pressure.
The original insight is in what the PSR’s own data does not settle. The Payments Association has argued the policy is treating fraud’s symptoms rather than its source, since the scams themselves increasingly originate on social media and messaging platforms the reimbursement rule does not touch, leaving payment firms to absorb costs for fraud that starts upstream of any bank. The PSR’s independent evaluation, due from Frontier Economics in spring 2026, will test whether reimbursement pressure alone can keep improving results without new obligations reaching the platforms where scams begin.
Consumer awareness remains a gap even as the numbers improve: PSR survey data cited in the review found 71 percent of fraud victims were unaware the reimbursement policy existed.
Source: Payment Systems Regulator
