Not upheld: Fraud reimbursement (APP scams) complaint against Barclays Bank UK PLC

Decision detail

Summary

Mr U lost £2,500 to an investment scam after making payments to a currency exchange service in February 2025. He claimed Barclays should reimburse him under the Faster Payments Scheme Reimbursement Rules. The Ombudsman found the Reimbursement Rules did not apply because the recipient account was held by the PSP itself rather than a PSP customer, and the account could not send/receive faster payments. The Ombudsman also found that the payments were consistent with Mr U's historical transaction patterns and therefore would not have triggered fraud detection intervention by Barclays. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The Ombudsman applied the Reimbursement Rules framework, which only covers payments to 'relevant accounts' (held by PSP customers, capable of sending/receiving faster payments, and held in the UK). The account Mr U paid was held by the PSP itself (the currency exchange service), so the Reimbursement Rules did not apply. Additionally, the Ombudsman examined whether Barclays should have intervened based on fraud detection obligations, but found that the payment amounts were consistent with Mr U's historical transaction patterns and therefore would not have appeared sufficiently unusual to trigger additional checks. The Ombudsman also noted that recovery was impossible as funds had already been moved.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website