Latest news with #antiFraud
The Independent
09-07-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Major bank fined £21m after allowing customers to register from Buckingham Palace and Downing Street
Monzo has been hit with a fine exceeding £21 million by the UK's financial watchdog for anti-fraud failures, including allowing customers with "implausible" information to open bank accounts. The digital bank was found to have taken on customers using 'obviously implausible UK addresses' such as Buckingham Palace, 10 Downing Street and Monzo's own headquarters, according to the regulator. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) confirmed the penalty was imposed for shortcomings in Monzo's anti-financial crime measures, with the failures dating back to between October 2018 and August 2020. The digital challenger bank also repeatedly breached a regulatory requirement, preventing it from opening accounts for over 34,000 high-risk customers between August 2020 and June 2022, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) stated. The FCA said Monzo's financial fraud systems and controls ultimately "failed to keep pace" with its rapid growth in customer numbers in recent years. Its customer base ballooned from 600,000 in 2018 to over 5.8 million in 2022. Therese Chambers, FCA joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said Monzo's actions 'fell far short of what we and society expect'. She said: ' Banks are a vital line of defence in the collective fight against financial crime. 'They must have the systems in place to prevent the flow of ill-gotten gains into the financial system. 'Monzo fell far short of what we and society expect. 'Monzo onboarded customers on the basis of limited, and in some cases, obviously implausible information, such as customers using well-known London landmarks as an address. 'This illustrates how lacking Monzo's financial crime controls were. 'This was compounded by its inability to properly comply with the requirement not to onboard high-risk customers.' The FCA said the fine of £21.1 million had been discounted from £30.1 million after Monzo agreed to resolve the issues. Monzo said the group has since made 'substantial improvements' in its systems and controls. TS Anil, the bank's group chief executive, said: 'The FCA's findings relate to a historical period that ended three years ago and draw a line under issues that have been resolved and are firmly in the past with our learnings at the time leading to substantial improvements in our controls. 'I'm pleased the FCA recognises the significant investments we have made, as well as our ongoing commitment to managing these risks today, as we go from strength to strength as a business approaching 13 million customers.'
News24
08-07-2025
- Health
- News24
Medical scheme racism report may ‘undermine' anti-fraud efforts, Discovery claims
Discovery has said that the recommendations of a report into systemic racism by medical schemes could undermine anti-fraud efforts. Be among those who shape the future with knowledge. Uncover exclusive stories that captivate your mind and heart with our FREE 14-day subscription trial. Dive into a world of inspiration, learning, and empowerment. You can only trial once. Show Comments ()
The Independent
08-07-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Monzo fined £21m after customers use London landmarks for addresses
Digital bank Monzo has been hit with a fine exceeding £21 million by the UK's financial watchdog for anti-fraud failures, including onboarding customers with "implausible" information such as London landmarks used as addresses. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) confirmed the penalty was imposed for shortcomings in Monzo's anti-financial crime measures, with the failures dating back to between October 2018 and August 2020. The digital challenger bank also repeatedly breached a regulatory requirement, preventing it from opening accounts for over 34,000 high-risk customers between August 2020 and June 2022, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) stated. The FCA said Monzo's financial fraud systems and controls ultimately "failed to keep pace" with its rapid growth in customer numbers in recent years. Its customer base ballooned from 600,000 in 2018 to over 5.8 million in 2022. Monzo was found to have taken on customers using using PO Boxes, foreign addresses with UK postcodes or 'obviously implausible UK addresses, such as well-known London landmarks', according to the regulator. Therese Chambers, FCA joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said Monzo's actions 'fell far short of what we and society expect'. She said: ' Banks are a vital line of defence in the collective fight against financial crime. 'They must have the systems in place to prevent the flow of ill-gotten gains into the financial system. 'Monzo fell far short of what we and society expect. 'Monzo onboarded customers on the basis of limited, and in some cases, obviously implausible information, such as customers using well-known London landmarks as an address. 'This illustrates how lacking Monzo's financial crime controls were. 'This was compounded by its inability to properly comply with the requirement not to onboard high-risk customers.' The FCA said the fine of £21.1 million had been discounted from £30.1 million after Monzo agreed to resolve the issues. Monzo said the group has since made 'substantial improvements' in its systems and controls. TS Anil, the bank's group chief executive, said: 'The FCA's findings relate to a historical period that ended three years ago and draw a line under issues that have been resolved and are firmly in the past with our learnings at the time leading to substantial improvements in our controls. 'I'm pleased the FCA recognises the significant investments we have made, as well as our ongoing commitment to managing these risks today, as we go from strength to strength as a business approaching 13 million customers.'
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Monzo fined over £21m after anti-fraud controls ‘fell far short'
Monzo has been fined more than £21 million over anti-fraud failures that saw it take on board customers with 'implausible' information, including using London landmarks as their addresses. The UK's financial watchdog said the fine related to failures regarding anti-financial crime measures dating back to between October 2018 and August 2020. The digital challenger bank also repeatedly breached a requirement preventing it from opening accounts for over 34,000 high-risk customers between August 2020 and June 2022, according to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The FCA said Monzo's financial fraud systems and controls 'failed to keep pace' with its rapid growth in customer numbers in recent years, which ballooned from 600,000 in 2018 to over 5.8 million in 2022. Monzo was found to have taken on customers using using PO Boxes, foreign addresses with UK postcodes or 'obviously implausible UK addresses, such as well-known London landmarks', according to the regulator. Therese Chambers, FCA joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said Monzo's actions 'fell far short of what we and society expect'. She said: 'Banks are a vital line of defence in the collective fight against financial crime. 'They must have the systems in place to prevent the flow of ill-gotten gains into the financial system. 'Monzo fell far short of what we and society expect. 'Monzo onboarded customers on the basis of limited, and in some cases, obviously implausible information, such as customers using well-known London landmarks as an address. 'This illustrates how lacking Monzo's financial crime controls were. 'This was compounded by its inability to properly comply with the requirement not to onboard high-risk customers.' The FCA said the fine of £21.1 million had been discounted from £30.1 million after Monzo agreed to resolve the issues. Monzo said the group has since made 'substantial improvements' in its systems and controls. TS Anil, the bank's group chief executive, said: 'The FCA's findings relate to a historical period that ended three years ago and draw a line under issues that have been resolved and are firmly in the past with our learnings at the time leading to substantial improvements in our controls. 'I'm pleased the FCA recognises the significant investments we have made, as well as our ongoing commitment to managing these risks today, as we go from strength to strength as a business approaching 13 million customers.'
ABC News
24-06-2025
- Automotive
- ABC News
Digital driver's licence anti-fraud technology described as 'cheap coding trick'
State governments are spruiking a "very cheap coding trick" as a high-tech anti-fraud measure for digital driver's licences, cybersecurity experts say. New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria have developed separate digital driver's licences. An "on-app hologram" featured on the NSW and Victoria licences has been spruiked as an anti-forgery measure. Cybersecurity professionals say the feature is not a true hologram, which requires significantly more advanced technology than phones can carry, let alone a secure way to validate a person's identity. They have called for the hologram feature to be removed and for governments to implement best-practice standards for digital identity documents. Thinking Cybersecurity chief executive Vanessa Teague said the hologram was "complete nonsense" and advice to the contrary was wrong. "It's not a security feature. Someone has conned someone who has purchasing power with public money and not enough technical understanding to see that it's completely invalid." The guidelines from Service Victoria and VicRoads instruct people checking the validity of a digital driver's licence to view the hologram. The Service NSW website lists six visual elements for those checking licences, one of which is to ensure the "waratah hologram" moves. Both governments instruct people checking licences to go beyond a visual check if they need "further verification", which is VicRoads' advice, or "extra reassurance" according to Service NSW. Software developer Michael Uren called that "appalling messaging", which opened up easy pathways to forgery that could allow underage people to buy alcohol or cigarettes, or enter a licensed premises. Earlier this month, a Mornington bar announced it would no longer accept digital IDs "due to way too many" fakes being presented. Mr Uren said he was also concerned fake licences could be used for more nefarious purposes like sharing fraudulent identification details at car accidents, signing rental agreements, or collecting items from post offices. He said while the "pulsing Queensland government crest" featured on its digital driver's licence was not marketed as a hologram, it should not be considered a security feature. The Queensland government website said visual checks should only be used for "low-risk verification" but did not define what that constituted. The Queensland digital driver's licence does meet international standards, but experts say allowing visual checks undermines that effort. The international standard, ISO 18013-5, outlines best practices about how digital licences are used, how information is shared, and how data is stored. "The app has gone through a range of security and penetration tests throughout its development and has passed these tests with flying colours," a spokesperson for Queensland's Department of Transport and Main Roads said. A Victorian government spokesperson said anyone verifying the legitimacy of a digital driver's licence should always scan the QR code. A spokesperson for Service NSW said the app has "multiple security features to prevent fraud" and the NSW government was running a pilot program of a verifiable photo credential to be built to international standards. Mr Uren said a key element of what makes physical driver's licences so difficult to replicate was the huge cost that would come with doing so convincingly. "There's a whole bunch of little physical things they put on those which are very expensive for anybody to come up with a printing process to do, to the point where it's unfeasible for somebody to do it," Mr Uren said. He said the "on-app hologram" featured on digital driver licences in Victoria and NSW was cheap and easy to replicate using generative AI. He said scanning the QR codes on digital licences was the only way to verify their validity and called on the state government to remove the feature from app-based driver's licences, or at the very least, change the verification instructions. "All it does is give people a false sense of security that when they wobble the screen around that's somehow showing it's a legitimate driver's licence when it just isn't the case," Mr Uren said. Ms Teague agreed the current advice was wrong and visual checks were not secure. "To me, it even raises the additional concern of whether the QR code scanning has been validly implemented. "It's very, very unclear whether there's really any genuine expertise in even getting the basic cryptographic design elements right and there's no public scrutiny." Ms Teague said implementing an international standard was the only way to ensure digital identification documents remained secure. "There's really no excuse for Australia not to be adopting one of those transparent standards," Ms Teague said. She said it was a far more secure approach than what was occurring in Australia. "We have at least four or five different things going on, each one of which has just been made up by people who apparently believe in holograms," she said. "In Australia, we insist on hiring some people who don't know what they're doing to make up their own thing instead of just adopting the secure standard from overseas. "We did this with the COVID app. There was a perfectly good international standard that was reasonably secure, instead we just made up our own rubbish that didn't work."
