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Ireland’s largest commercial bank has welcomed a new suite of fraud prevention commitments unveiled by the Irish government last week, including new data-sharing powers for financial institutions.
The Bank of Ireland, the largest of Ireland’s “big four” banks, has welcomed the prioritisation of anti-fraud measures outlined in lawmakers’ latest Programme for Government.
From 2025 onwards, lawmakers will commit to developing a shared fraud database, and to examining the feasibility of an SMS scam filter.
At present, financial institutions, utility companies and payments firms are unable to share details of fraud between them.
The Bank of Ireland, which supported the measure prior to the Programme for Government, said a shared fraud database would allow financial institutions to prevent customer losses more swiftly.
However, such a database would require new enabling regulations under the Data Protection Act 2018.
Similarly, an SMS scam filter would help to prevent scam attempts from reaching consumers, but it too would require new legislation.
The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) has highlighted that other English-speaking countries, such as the UK and Australia, already have SMS scam filters in place.
In August 2024, lawmakers in Australia enacted new legislation to create an SMS Sender ID Registry, which aims to prevent scammers from impersonating commercial organisations and government agencies.
As noted by ComReg, other EU member states such as Belgium, Poland and Spain have either already introduced an SMS scam filter or are planning to do so.
Finally, the Bank of Ireland said it supports the government’s plans to advocate for new national and EU laws that would prohibit unregulated firms from advertising financial products online.
“Prevention really is better than cure when it comes to fraud,” said Bank of Ireland CEO Susan Russell.
“We welcome the inclusion of these commitments in the Programme for Government and we will continue to advocate for their speedy delivery by the new government.”
