Lloyds boss Charlie Nunn says Meta is not doing enough to tackle scams

The chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group has joined calls for technology firms like Meta to do more to clamp down on a surge in scams originating from social media.

Charlie Nunn, one of Britain’s most influential bankers, said social media giants needed to collaborate more with lenders to protect consumers.

Asked on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme whether Lloyds believed tech companies were “pulling their weight” on fraud, Nunn replied: “No, we don’t.”

“It’s really harrowing. I listen in to calls and hear what people are going through when they experience fraud, and we need to do more to protect customers – not just compensate them,” Nunn said.

“And 80 per cent of financial fraud in the UK is occurring through the big tech companies, almost 70 per cent through one company – Meta.”

His comments come shortly after new rules implemented by the UK payments regulator last week have made banks and other payment firms liable for reimbursing victims of authorised push payment (APP) fraud up to a limit of £85,000 per claim.

The industry has criticised the regime for placing no liability on tech firms for high rates of fraud coming from their platforms. HSBC and Revolut have both publicly called for social media companies to play a role in refunding victims.

While stopping short of making this demand, Nunn emphasised the role of Meta – which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram – as a source of fraud that banks ultimately have to pay up for.

“It’s Facebook Marketplace, the Facebook platform, and the Instagram platform,” he said. “And they’re the ones that are enabling customers to be contacted by fraudsters and to be messaged so that they are encouraged to send payments which aren’t safe.

“So we really are asking for the tech companies specifically to do more to work with us to protect people.”

As boss of one of the UK’s biggest lenders, Nunn’s position is a blow for Meta’s recent efforts to collaborate with the country’s banking sector on tackling fraud.

Meta announced earlier this month that it would partner with more UK banks for its Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (FIRE) after a six-month trial with Natwest and Metro Bank.

The project allows lenders to share intelligence directly with Meta. The US giant claimed its trial had led to removal of around 20,000 accounts run by scammers.

TSB Bank found earlier this year that around a third of Facebook Marketplace listings could be scams. APP fraud cost Britons £460m in 2023, according to banking trade body UK Finance.

Meta has previously said fraud is a “multi-sector spanning issue that can only be addressed by working collaboratively” and that the FIRE scheme “is designed to enable banks to share information so we can work together to protect people using our respective services”.