Payment Expert Podcast: Why fraud must extend beyond the banks

In a recent episode of the Payment Expert Podcast, Oliver Hanmer, Managing Director of the UK FCC Advisory Practice at Capgemini, examined the UK's evolving fraud strategy and argued that responsibility for combating fraud must extend well beyond the banking sector to encompass telecommunications and social media platforms.

Hanmer's commentary reflects a growing recognition within the financial services and payments industry that fraud has become a systemic challenge requiring coordinated action across multiple sectors. Traditional fraud prevention has concentrated on banks and payment processors, but the proliferation of scams, account takeovers, and social engineering attacks increasingly originates from or flows through telecommunications networks and social platforms, which have historically borne minimal accountability for fraud prevention.

For the iGaming sector, this broader conversation carries direct relevance. Online gambling operators face mounting fraud risks including payment fraud, account takeover, bonus abuse, and identity theft. Many of these threats originate from or are facilitated by compromised phone numbers, SIM swaps, and social media-based social engineering. If telecommunications and social media platforms are held to higher standards for fraud prevention and reporting, the downstream effect could reduce the volume of fraudulent transactions reaching gaming operators, lowering their compliance burden and improving player protection.

The podcast discussion also highlights the tension between platform responsibility and privacy concerns, as well as the practical challenges of cross-sector coordination. For iGaming operators, the implications are twofold: first, operators may benefit from reduced fraud volume if upstream platforms strengthen their controls; second, regulators may increasingly expect operators to engage with and report fraud patterns to telecommunications and social media companies. The shift toward shared responsibility across sectors could reshape how gaming operators approach fraud management and their relationships with technology and communications infrastructure providers.