UK consumers lost more to financial fraud in 2025, FT reports

In short: UK consumers lost more money to financial fraud in 2025 than at any point in the last four years.

What's going on

The Financial Times reports that losses suffered by UK consumers due to financial fraud rose to a four year high in 2025. Financial fraud includes scams where criminals trick people into sending money, sharing bank details, or approving payments they did not mean to make.

This rise is expected to increase pressure from banks on the UK government. Banks have long argued that fraud often starts outside the banking system, such as through scam ads, fake websites, or messages sent on social media and messaging apps.

Banks want the government to require large tech companies to do more to stop fraudulent activity on their platforms. In simple terms, banks are saying that if a scam starts on a tech platform, that platform should help prevent it, like a shopping centre being asked to improve security if many thefts begin there.

What to watch

A key question is whether the government will tighten rules for tech firms, and what that would look like in practice. That could include faster removal of scam accounts and ads, stronger checks on advertisers, and clearer ways for people to report fraud. Another issue to watch is who pays when people lose money, the bank, the tech platform, or the consumer.

Source: Financial Times