The UK's banks have disagreed on how to pay for refunds to customers who have been tricked into transferring money to sophisticated fraudsters. A temporary agreement has been in place since May, making it easier for victims of so-called authorised push payment (APP) fraud to get money back. Now it has been revealed that there is no industry consensus on long-term funding to refund blameless victims. Without a new deal, victims could be left without protection from January. 'Disappointment'

In the first six months of this year, people lost £208m to fraudsters posing as bank staff, building contractors, solicitors or even police and persuading them to send money from their accounts. Only a fifth of that was refunded, generally when it was clear that the customer was innocent and the bank had not taken enough care. Since May, a new code has been in place, backed by a temporary agreement between eight banks to pay refunds in no-blame situations where neither the victim nor the bank was at fault. There were plans for this agreement to be superseded in January by a new levy of 3p a time on bank transfers which would go to a reimbursement fund. But a number of banks have refused to support the levy idea, according to Pay.UK - the body operating the UK's money transfer system - which said there was "no industry consensus".

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