Digital bank Revolut slams Meta over approach to scams, says tech giant should compensate victims

cnbc.com:

British financial technology firm Revolut on Thursday criticized Facebook parent company Meta over its approach to tackling fraud, saying the U.S. tech giant should directly compensate people who fall victim to scams via its social media platforms.

A day after Meta announced a partnership with U.K. banks NatWest and Metro Bank on a data-sharing framework designed to help prevent customers from falling prey to fraud schemes, Revolut said the pact «falls woefully short of what's required to tackle fraud globally.»

In a statement, Woody Malouf, Revolut's head of financial crime, said that Meta's plans to tackle financial fraud on its platforms amount to «baby steps, when what the industry really needs is giant leaps forward.»

«These platforms share no responsibility in reimbursing victims, and so they have no incentive to do anything about it. A commitment to data sharing, albeit needed, simply isn't good enough,» Malouf added.

A Meta spokesperson told CNBC that its intelligence-sharing framework for banks «is designed to enable banks to share information so we can work together to protect people using our respective services.»

«Fraud is a multi-sector spanning issue that can only be addressed by working collaboratively,» the spokesperson said via email. «We encourage banks including Revolut to join in this effort.»

New payment industry reforms will come into force in the U.K. on Oct. 7 that require banks and payment firms to issue victims of so-called authorized push payment (APP) fraud a maximum compensation of £85,000 ($111,000).

Britain's Payments System Regulator had previously recommended a £415,000 maximum compensation amount for fraud victims, but backed down following backlash from banks and payment firms.

Revolut'