UK banks and Meta agree to share information to combat fraud

Meta and multiple banks from the United Kingdom have teamed up to share information that can help protect customers against fraud.
NatWest, Metro Bank and Meta have joined forces in the Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (FIRE), a threat intelligence sharing program for financial institutions. This partnership allows banks to share detailed financial information with the Menlo Park-based tech company to put a stop to scammers.
Over the past six months, the UK banks and Meta were involved in an information sharing pilot, which was considered a thunderous success. In this short period of time, Meta was able to remove approximately 20,000 accounts run by scammers from the 185 URLs they shared. The insights that the company gained helped to strengthen its fraud detection capabilities.
According to Nathaniel Gleicher, Global Head of Counter-Fraud at Meta, the pilot indicates the importance of banks and platforms working together to thwart scammers.
“We will only beat these criminals if we work together and share relevant information related to scams. Financial institutions can share unique information with us which we can in turn use to train our systems to take action against more scams globally,” he said in a statement.
Meta will continue the pilot in the coming months, adding more banks to the test. The banking sector has welcomed the pilot, as well as the London Police and the National Economic Crime Centre.
“Spotting and stopping fraudsters before they are able to target customers is the best way to address this growing problem. Partnering with Meta is an important step in tackling the epidemic of fraud. We welcome the opportunity to deepen our collaboration and ensure a cross-industry approach to fraud prevention and enforcement,” David Lindberg, CEO of Retail Banking at NatWest, stated.
Faisal Hussain, Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Metro Bank, acknowledges that scams and online fraud are an industry-wide problem which require an industry-wide solution. Therefore he’s happy with the partnership with Meta. “Through sharing this information, we hope to significantly improve scam detection and enforcement, ultimately creating a safer digital environment for everyone,” he said.
Nik Adams, Temporary Assistant Commissioner at the City of London Police, says it’s vital for the tech industry to help in the fight against online fraud. “We hope this expansion will rapidly increase Meta’s ability to act upon harmful content and to support the wider fight against fraud through the sharing of intelligence and insight that disrupt criminals, design out fraud, and protect victims.”
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