The American Bankers Association presented lawmakers with a national blueprint for fighting fraud and scams, which included requiring telecommunications and social media companies to do their part and giving states and local governments the resources to target financial crimes.
The Joint Economic Committee – which comprises members from both the House and Senate – will hold a hearing today on modernizing federal approaches to combating fraud and scams. In a statement submitted ahead of the hearing, ABA pointed to the long history of banks as first adopters of new technologies to protect customers.
However, telecommunications and social media companies need to do more to fight fraud on their end, ABA said. Banks also need strong partnerships with law enforcement, and they welcome the chance to partner with community organizations to address the problem.
“Banks clearly play a key role in fighting fraud, but unless every player in the ecosystem joins the fight, criminals will continue to steal at a scale we’ve never witnessed before,” ABA said.
ABA outlined three strategies to combat the threat of fraud and scams:
- A whole-of-ecosystem approach where all participants in the scam lifecycle actively work to protect Americans. “Unlike financial institutions, which are legally required to verify customer identities and invest billions annually in fraud prevention, wireless providers and social media platforms have taken few steps to stop fraudsters from misusing their networks,” ABA said.
- The establishment of a National Fraud and Scam Prevention Coordinator who reports to the president. “A centralized governmental lead needs to be established that can coordinate a ‘whole of government’ response to protect Americans from scams and fraud with a focus on prevention and early intervention,” ABA said.
- Grants for state and local Financial Crime Intelligence Centers. “Congress should establish a grant program for state and Local law enforcement to focus on financial crimes and scam response, enabling them to establish Financial Crime Intelligence Centers similar to the one in Texas,” ABA said.
