Issue 38
October 2025
Welcome to the MBA's News Digest!
Dear readers,
The Bank of England and HM Treasury are continuing to explore the case for a digital pound – a form of central bank money that would complement existing ways to pay in an increasingly digital economy.
Australian banks commend the Government for taking action to crack down on the ability of criminals to use crypto ATMs and urge the swift introduction and passage of the necessary enabling legislation.
In the UK, criminals stole £629.3 million in the first half of the year, a three per cent increase on the same period in 2024.
Best wishes,
The MBA team
US: FinCEN Issues Frequently Asked Questions to Clarify Suspicious Activity Reporting Requirements
9 October 2025
‘The FAQs clarify regulatory requirements relating to structuring SARs, continuing activity reviews, and a financial institution’s decision not to file a SAR and were informed by feedback from financial institutions. The answers to these FAQs can assist financial institutions with their compliance obligations while enabling institutions to focus resources on activities that produce the greatest value to law enforcement agencies.’
Luxembourg: Verification of Payee successfully implemented across Luxembourg’s financial sector
22 October 2025
‘The Verification of Payee automatically checks whether the recipient’s name matches their IBAN before a transfer is executed. Introduced under the European Commission’s Instant Payments initiative, this mechanism is designed to reduce the risk of fraud and misdirected payments… Banks and payment service providers had just 18 months to implement this large-scale project, which involved complex technical and cross-border challenges.’
Luxembourg: National register of energy performance certificates: a key development for Luxembourg’s banking sector
21 October 2025
‘The UK mortgage industry operates within a complex regulatory framework that demands rigorous verification, comprehensive risk assessment, and detailed documentation. These requirements exist for excellent reasons: protecting consumers, ensuring market stability, and maintaining trust in the financial system. But here’s the challenge: customer expectations have fundamentally shifted. Today’s borrowers manage their entire financial lives through intuitive digital interfaces. They expect the same level of convenience and transparency from their mortgage experience. The gap between expectation and reality creates friction that affects everyone: borrowers feel frustrated by lengthy processes, while lenders struggle with processing times that average 45 days.’
Australia: Banks welcome more progress to modernise payments system rules
9 October 2025
‘ “Australians now have access to a range of payment options and no matter how they choose to pay, they should be afforded the same consumer protections,” Mr Birmingham said. “Banks have called for a core licensing regime for some time and welcome the clearer obligations on payment service providers that will be delivered with these reforms. “These reforms will help to ensure our regulatory framework continues to deliver a world-class payments system across the entire economy. “Importantly, these changes are about making sure all players in the payments system, including multinational tech companies, are captured by the same rules.’
Australia: Australian banks welcome new Federal Government action to crackdown on financial crime
16 October 2025
‘ “Banks commend the Government for taking this action to crack down on the ability of criminals to use crypto ATMs and urge the swift introduction and passage of the necessary enabling legislation.” Mr Birmingham also said allowing banks to access more information about a person’s visa status was a sensible and collaborative step in helping to stamp-out money mule activity. “International students and non-permanent residents are often targeted and recruited by criminals to act as money mules to hide and move stolen money or illegal crime proceeds around,” Mr Birmingham said. “Giving banks the ability to check visa details when they detect unusual account activity will be a valuable additional tool for banks to stifle the ability of criminals to steal money from Australians.’
UK: Digital pound update
23 October 2025
‘The Bank of England and HM Treasury are continuing to explore the case for a digital pound – a form of central bank money that would complement existing ways to pay in an increasingly digital economy. No decision has been made on whether to introduce a digital pound. The current ‘design phase’ of the digital pound workplan runs through 2026…. Over the past year, our focus has been on developing the blueprint – a detailed design for any potential digital pound – were one to be launched. The blueprint is expected to be published in 2026, supported by design notes that set out our emerging thinking on key issues and practical experimentation; particularly through the Digital Pound Lab. This work is contributing both to the development of a potential digital pound and to a deeper understanding of how public money could operate within a multi-money system.’
UK: Over £600 million stolen by fraudsters in first half of 2025
24 October 2025
‘Criminals stole £629.3 million in the first half of the year, a three per cent increase on the same period in 2024. There were over 2.09 million confirmed cases of fraud, a 17 per cent increase on this time last year. Banks prevented £870 million of unauthorised fraud through advanced security systems… 66 per cent of APP fraud cases started online and 17 per cent started through telecommunications networks. The financial services sector continues to be at the forefront of efforts to tackle fraudsters and protect customers. UK Finance is calling on the government’s upcoming Fraud Strategy to ensure all sectors are accountable in preventing fraud.’
UK: AI adoption rises in compliance, but measurement still lags
14 October 2025
‘Moody’s study found that the organisations deriving the clearest benefits from AI are those with higher data maturity, and those that actively supervise AI’s outputs rather than leaving these unchecked. Organisations who report the highest impacts are also the ones with more structured, accessible data, and a better understanding of where AI fits within their compliance frameworks. Respondents indicated that poorly structured or siloed data led to weaker outputs, regardless of the sophistication of the AI tools in use. But when organisations invest in high-quality, well-governed data, they appear to be giving AI the foundation it needs to work more effectively.’
US: ABA urges FCC to modernize calling rules, strengthen fraud protections
22 October 2025
‘The American Bankers Association this week sent a letter urging the Federal Communications Commission to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking that would adopt several ABA requests to modernize the FCC’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act rules and combat illegal call spoofing. The FCC is scheduled to vote Oct. 28 on whether to issue the notice. The TCPA is a 1991 law that regulates telemarketing and informational calls using automated processes. The draft rulemaking under consideration contains changes to the FCC’s TCPA rules that ABA has urged the commission to make.’
Hong Kong - Hong Kong’s BEA unveils multi-currency debit card
27 October 2025
‘Bank of East Asia (BEA) has launched a debit card in partnership with Mastercard that offers 24/7 real-time foreign exchange with zero transaction and handling fees, according to a press release. The card supports 11 major currencies, with withdrawal supported at over 2.5 million access points worldwide, the Hong Kong-based bank said in a press release in October 2025. Currencies supported include HKD, USD, EUR, GBP, CNY, JPY, AUD, CAD, NZD, SGD, and CHF. Cardholders can switch between cash rebates and bonus points depending on their spending habits. They can also link it to BEA’s All-in-One Accounts, allowing transactions to be directly debited in the relevant currency or settled in HKD with automatic foreign currency conversion.’
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