TSB has announced a new £200,000 partnership with the Metropolitan Police (Met) to combat fraud and hunt down the criminals that sit behind it.

Fraud is now one of the most common crimes in the UK and the financial impact to consumers is tremendous, with over £2m lost per day. According to figures released by the Met last year revealed that over 3,500 Londoners are reporting fraud and cybercrimes each month with many more attacks going unreported or detected.

Fraud is becoming increasingly challenging to fight, following several highly complex and sophisticated attacks against banks last year, including TSB.

The partnership between TSB and the Met will initially focus on battling fraud in South East London, and will be supported by the London Digital Security Centre, while also involving the local authorities with Lewisham, Bexley and the Royal Borough of Greenwich. Working together, the aim is to target-harden local communities, and to disrupt and prevent more would-be-fraudsters before they are able to commit crime.

In support of this collaboration, TSB has invested £200,000 this year to deliver activity in the fight against fraud. The funding will help to increase the ability of the police and local partners to work together on fraud prevention and enforcement; enhance the skills of officers and staff - particularly within the Met’s Special Constabulary - and finance new and innovative ways of tackling fraud at a local level, including ongoing support costs for the Met’s Cybertools app, for front-line police officers.

Commenting on the launch, Metropolitan Police superintendent of the South East basic command unit Sean McDermid said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to work with the banking industry to make a real difference, not only to our communities in the South East but also our volunteers and wider workforce.

“Fraud is a serious epidemic and only through building positive relationships between the police, banks, business and London’s communities, can we tackle it. We all have our part to play and I would urge everyone to be vigilant to potential scams and to think before they act. Fraud can happen to any of us.”

TSB executive chairman Richard Meddings added: “TSB’s experience last year shows the scale and risk of fraud in a digital age. Fraud is a serious and organised crime, and we want to hunt down the criminals targeting customers. That’s why we’ve put our learning into practice to work with the Met to help ensure fraud is a high-risk crime.

“The partnership announced today will help customers of every bank and business avoid being duped. It will improve fraud detection, drive greater collaboration across the industry, and, crucially, put criminals behind bars.”

Meddings added that the bank’s ambition is to roll partnerships such as this one to regional police forces across the UK to support them in their fight against financial crime.

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