Australia's banking industry marked a milestone on November 24 with the one-year anniversary of the Scam-Safe Accord, a collaborative initiative aimed at fighting scams.

“Customer-owned banks, with their people-first ethos, are deeply committed to protecting Australians from scams and continue to invest in strengthening fraud and scam protections,” said Australia's Customer Owned Banking Association (COBA) CEO and World Council of Credit Unions' Board Chair Michael Lawrence.

A key weapon in the fight against scams is data sharing.

“Since the launch of the Scam-Safe Accord last year, customer-owned banks participating in Data Exchange have increased six-fold. By sharing data across institutions, banks and credit unions can more quickly identify emerging scam trends and patterns,” added Lawrence.

All COBA members have joined the accord, dedicating substantial resources and investment to protect their customers. Here’s how three customer-owned banks have amplified their scam defenses.

Regional Australia Bank’s multi-prong approach

Regional Australia Bank has implemented a comprehensive suite of anti-scam initiatives designed to better protect its members.

The Board has endorsed a holistic program of work covering governance, prevention, detection and response; however, a strong focus has been on prevention. This includes investing in advanced technology like biometric liveness detection to verify identities during onboarding and systems to proactively detect potential ID theft. To further strengthen security, Regional Australia Bank has implemented monthly limits on transactions to cryptocurrency providers and a 24-hour hold on high-risk transactions made through the New Payments Platform, giving time to review any suspicious activity.

But Regional Australia Bank’s commitment goes beyond technology. The bank has also enhanced its scam detection practices and processes and provides specialized ‘Scam First Aid Procedure’ training for frontline staff, empowering them to act as first responders to potential scam situations.

This comprehensive approach is clearly making a difference. In the last financial year, RAB successfully detected and stopped 44% of scam transactions, compared to an industry average of 19% reported by ASIC.

“Our data analysis shows that we are detecting and stopping two times more scams than comparable banks, and our mutual difference is being demonstrated with customer scam cases being resolved in half the time of other reviewed banks,” said Regional Australia Bank’s Chief Operating Officer Les Bailey.

Great Southern Bank: Technology and education  

Great Southern Bank has made significant strides in combatting scams by focusing on customer education and enhanced security measures.

To better equip customers against scams, the bank revamped its online Security and Fraud hub with a range of educational resources. By promoting the hub across various channels with clear calls-to-action, they achieved a 30% year-on-year increase in visits. The customer-owned bank also prioritized high-risk customers over the age of 65 with targeted materials.

Beyond education, Great Southern Bank is taking a proactive approach to scam prevention, including intentionally adding ‘payment friction’ to online and mobile transactions, providing an extra layer of protection for customers.

“We’re pleased to report a 26% drop in scam volumes last financial year, with 63% of potential scam losses prevented or recovered. Building on this momentum, we’re exploring new technologies to further strengthen our control environment and keep customer safe,” said Great Southern Bank’s Head of Customer Experience Todd Skerman.

This commitment to innovation underscores the customer-owned bank’s dedication to protecting customers from financial fraud.

Teachers Mutual Bank Limited implements new payee security feature

A key initiative of the Scam-Safe Accord is a whole-of-industry solution for ‘confirmation of payee’, due to be rolled out across all Australian banks in 2025.

Teachers Mutual Bank Limited was the first customer-owned bank to implement a security feature earlier this year that indicates, when customers are making a payment for the first time, if the account details they’ve entered look right.  

This technology was initially launched on Teachers Mutual Bank internet banking, closely followed by Health Professionals Bank, Firefighters Mutual Bank, and UniBank internet banking, and in the first two months of implementation more than 17,000 customers used the feature, which prevented more than $720,000 worth of mistaken payments or potential scams.

The security feature is planned to be rolled out to Teachers Mutual Bank Limited retail banking apps in December 2024.

To find out more about the Scam-Safe Accord, head here.

This post originally appeared on the Customer Owned Banking Association (COBA) website. COBA is World Council of Credit Unions' direct member organization in Australia.