StreamMind, a leading technology provider, announced the roll out in Europe of its solution to prevent bank transfer scams, a solution that allows a user to match an identity with bank account number. The solution enables the bank to comply with the recent proposal by Payment Systems Regulator to fully put confirmation of payee measures in place by 31st March 2020. This is an initiative to protect people from scams in bank transfers also called Authorised Push Payments (APP) scams.

Banks getting together to form a code of practice to reimburse victims has long been needed, in fact trade body UK Finance reported that so-called Authorised Push Payment (APP) scams cost £354.3m last year, with £228.4m lost to consumers and £126m to non-personal or business account holders.

In contrast with scams where money is stolen from people, victims of transfer scams, where they are tricked in transferring funds into a fraudsters account, were faced to never see their money again – because they would have effectively authorised their bank to make the payment. This new code of practice will mean that they will be entitled to reimbursement on an interim basis until January when longer-term funding arrangements are put in place.

The Payment Systems Regulator proposed that the UK's six biggest banking groups, which are involved in about 90% of bank transfers, fully put the confirmation of payee measures in place by 31 March 2020.

StreamMind works with a large network of banks and has built the first interbank network in cooperation with the major French banks (Caisse d’Epargne, Crédit Mutuel, CIC, Crédit Agricole, BNP, and Société Générale) and several leaders in the information technology sector (SUN Microsystems, HP and IBM). The solution Lucy leverages this interbank network and works by matching the identity of an account holder with its account details from any of the banks within the network. This is by making sure that the name of the person being sent money matches the name entered by the person paying.

This means that any of the banks signing up for StreamMind’s solution can benefit from the verification software and access to the large network. Lucy is already used by major banks in France, and other in Europe, readily available. On a global scale, it positions StreamMind as a leading provider to comply with the measures required by the regulators: the confirmation of payee.

Which? has found that approximately £674 every minute is lost to bank transfer scams, Lucy can do 4 million verification in a minute.

CEO of StreamMind, Nicolas Muhadri said: “Getting measures in place to fight against bank transfer scams is necessary to protect consumers who should not have to bear the burden of criminal activities. With our solution Lucy, banks can lift the burden by empowering them against such scams.”