Fraud and scams — including check fraud — continue to be a growing concern. To source the best ideas on how to combat them, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) are seeking input on potential actions to help mitigate risk of payments and check fraud. Comments must be received within 90 days after the request for comment notice is published in the Federal Register.
In its role as a payment system operator and catalyst for payment system improvements, the Federal Reserve has focused on payment system safety over the years through its Strategies for Improving the U.S. Payment System (PDF) white paper in 2015, the Secure Payments Task Force that met in 2023-2018, the Synthetic Identity Fraud Mitigation Toolkit launched in 2022, and Fed-sponsored work groups that developed the FraudClassifierSM model announced in 2020 and ScamClassifierSM model unveiled in 2024.
Payments fraud and scams are growing in size and impact – so the Federal Reserve Board and two other regulatory agencies have requested comment on how they can help address this costly concern.
The Federal Reserve System, FDIC, and OCC are considering whether additional actions may be warranted, collectively or independently in their different roles. Therefore, input is requested on five potential areas for improvement and collaboration:
- External collaboration among the agencies, Federal Reserve Banks and industry stakeholders
- Payments fraud education for consumers, business and industry by the agencies and Federal Reserve Banks
- Regulation and supervision to mitigate payments fraud, including opportunities the Federal Reserve may have related to check fraud
- Payments fraud data collection and information sharing
- Federal Reserve Banks’ operator tools and services to reduce payments fraud
For more information, review the joint press release from the Federal Reserve, FDIC and OCC (Off-site).