Our Head of Fraud, Humera Yakub, recently joined a panel of industry experts at the Fraud Leaders’ Summit to explore how organisations can work together to strengthen fraud prevention and improve outcomes for customers.
During the session, “United against fraud? Closing the collaboration gap”, representatives from payments, banking, retail and international fraud prevention organisations came together to discuss the evolving fraud landscape and the role collaboration can play in helping the industry respond.
Alongside Humera, the panel featured Jamie Byles (NatWest), Grant Shipway (River Island) and Andrei Skorobogatov (Global Anti-Scam Alliance).
Working together across the ecosystem
A recurring theme throughout the discussion was the importance of collaboration across the wider fraud ecosystem.
The panel explored how payment providers, retailers, technology companies, telecommunications firms, law enforcement and government agencies can work more closely together to tackle fraud. While data sharing remains an important part of the response, panellists discussed how stronger partnerships and practical collaboration can help organisations identify emerging threats and support fraud prevention efforts.
Humera noted that fraudsters continue to adapt their methods, often operating across multiple channels and sectors. This underlines the importance of organisations sharing insights and working together to stay ahead of evolving risks.
Looking beyond the payment
During the discussion, Humera highlighted that measures such as the Payment Systems Regulator’s authorised push payment (APP) reimbursement policy have strengthened protections for customers and improved support for victims of fraud.
She explained that many scams begin before a payment reaches the banking system, often through online platforms, social media or telecommunications channels. As a result, reducing fraud requires collaboration across a broad range of sectors, with opportunities to identify and address risks earlier in the customer journey.
The role of data sharing
Data sharing was a key topic throughout the session, with panellists discussing how organisations can exchange intelligence and risk information to support more informed decision-making.
Humera shared Pay.UK’s perspective that enhancing real-time information sharing between payment service providers (PSPs) can play an important role in strengthening fraud prevention. She outlined the development of Enhanced Data Exchange (EDEx), Pay.UK’s initiative to enable richer information sharing between sending and receiving PSPs before a payment is completed.
By allowing firms to exchange relevant risk information in real time, EDEx aims to support a more joined-up approach to fraud prevention across the payments industry.
Building on existing capabilities
As the discussion drew to a close, Humera highlighted the importance of understanding and building awareness of existing industry data sets and technological infrastructure, so organisations can avoid duplicating capabilities and ensure investment is directed towards developing new, intelligent solutions that are key to preventing fraud and financial crime.
She noted that there is significant value in industry partnerships to help accelerate progress and maximise the benefits of investment already made across the sector.
A shared effort
The panel concluded that, while progress continues to be made, addressing fraud will require ongoing collaboration between organisations across the payments, technology, telecommunications and public sectors.
For Pay.UK, working closely with PSPs, regulators, government agencies and the wider industry remains an important part of helping to strengthen fraud prevention and support safer payments for people and businesses across the UK.
Humera said: “Through initiatives such as Confirmation of Payee, EDEx, and the implementation of the APP reimbursement policy as well as a single claims management system, we are supporting greater collaboration and information sharing across the payments industry. By working together, we can help strengthen fraud prevention and improve outcomes for customers.”
