ICBA this week met with Government Accountability Office officials to discuss authorized payment fraud, in which scammers dupe consumers into authorizing payments.
Meeting Request: The GAO requested the meeting to discuss the nature and prevalence of fraud schemes involving authorized payments, the extent to which businesses work to mitigate these scams, and how Regulation E requirements affect reimbursement protocols.
ICBA Briefing: During the meeting, ICBA Bank Operations & Payments Committee Chairman Alice Frazier of Bank of Charles Town, W.Va., and ICBA Consumer Finance Services Committee member Gay Dempsey of Bank of Lincoln Count, Tenn., discussed community bank efforts to educate customers, the multiple fraud tools they use, and Reg E compliance.
Background: Amid rising fraud on peer-to-peer payments services, policymakers such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have called on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to strengthen Reg E to require banks to reimburse customers who have authorized fraudulent payments. In response, ICBA has said tighter regulatory restrictions are not the answer to addressing these scams.
