ABA opening statement to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee | Scams Prevention Framework Bill 2024

ABA Opening Statement: CEO Anna Bligh AC

Can I thank you as Chair and the Committee for the opportunity to appear before you today.

As you know, every day, countless Australians fall victim to scams — these are cruel acts carried out by international criminal gangs that are targeting our families, our communities and our friends.

While every dollar that is lost, is a dollar too much, the good news is, Australia has taken a big step forward in better shielding the country from scammers. 

Sector specific initiatives have been crucial in bolstering our scam defences.

Banks are ramping-up protections through our industry’s Scam-Safe Accord which is seeing the roll-out of a new confirmation-of-payee system, a major expansion of better intelligence sharing between banks and other sectors, the use of biometric checks for new account openings and more payment delays and warnings.

The blocking of suspect payments to crypto exchanges has also made it harder for criminals to move stolen money.

Similarly, telcos have introduced measures that are blocking millions of scam phone calls and texts, and the rollout of the SMS Registry is an important next step.

The Federal Government’s efforts to coordinate industry stakeholders through the National Anti-Scams Centre in one united effort has also been a very critical step forward.

As a result of these actions and others, Australia is one of the few countries in the world that is seeing scam losses decline.

Losses reported by the public to Government’s Scamwatch program, decreased by 41.0% in the 2024 financial year. This is consistent with a recent report from BDO showed scam losses in Australia fell by 40 per cent in the 2024 year. The BDO report, Senator, is attached to the Westpac submission to your committee.

By comparison, scam losses in the UK, USA and Canada increased in this same time period.

Furthermore, the BDO report also found that in the UK, per capita scam losses are almost double those here in Australia.

Our world first approach recognises that the best way to protect Australians from scammers is by stopping them being exposed to scams in the first place.

But there is still much more work to be done.

If we are to truly make Australia a hard target for scams, enshrining in law, clear obligations on all parts of the scam ecosystem is essential.  That means holding banks, telcos and the digital platforms that operate here to account for the actions they take to protect customers.

It’s why, with certain key amendments, the ABA supports passage of the Scam Prevention Framework bill.

The key amendments that are sought by our banks are outlined in full detail in our submission. But to summarise, we would be seeking amendments to the bill that firstly:  

1. Clarify Obligations: to eliminate conflicting and uncertain obligations between scam principles in the bill and the sector codes that the bill provides for, to ensure clear guidance for compliance and effective action.

2. Amendments to Refine the Information Sharing Requirements: to ensure actionable intelligence obligations are targeted, practical, and effective in combatting scams.

3. Ensure harmony with other obligations: to ensure that obligations in the current Anti-Money Laundering Laws and Spam Act do not impede collective scam prevention efforts.

The ABA and our members remain committed to working with the Australian Parliament and the government and other industry stakeholders to drive down scam losses and better protect Australians. I am very happy to take any questions you have on any specific aspects of the Bill.

Anna BlighScams