OBL Warns of Growing APP Scams Targeting Open Banking

The Open Banking Limited, UK’s key delivery body that develops and governs the standards for open banking in the country, recently published an update to its report regarding financial crime in the open banking sector.

The update, published on December 8, has warned that open banking payments in the UK are starting to catch the attention of fraudsters, with authorised push payment scams seeing a sharp rise.

This year, over 15 million people in the UK, or around one in three adults, used services powered by open banking during the summer months. Payments are the biggest driver of adoption, and data from July shows that the total value has reached £29.89 million.

For now, fraud linked to open banking payments is still significantly below the wider industry average. But, APP scams, which manipulate people to send money to scammers, are becoming more sophisticated and are seeing growing success in tricking people out of their funds.

Open Banking Fraud Is Below Industry Benchmarks, But APP Scams Are In The Lead

The OBL report has studied data between March 2024 and September 2025, and the figures show that fraud affecting open banking payments accounted for around 0.013% of transactions by volume, and 0.020% by value in the first half of this year.

Compared to the industry averages of $0.045% and 0.027%, these figures show a more favorable situation in the UK, compared to the global average. Furthermore, overall fraud rates in open banking have also gone down since last year, which is another positive.

But, the report highlighted that APP scams have seen an uptick recently, as they now account for 74% of all open banking fraud. App fraud has seen a rate of around 0.013% of open banking payment volumes.

As part of its key insights, the report said that emerging threats require ongoing attention, especially when it comes to the fraudsters’ reliance on AI, SIM-swap scams, and social engineering tactics, all of which are evolving rapidly.

To address this, OBL suggests the application of adaptive strategies and collaboration, calling for industry-wide data sharing and innovative tools like Transaction Risk Indicators.

OBL’s head of participant support, Christian Delesalle, commented on the matter, stating that open banking remains resilient against fraud and that the rates are consistently below industry benchmarks. “While we are seeing a slight increase in APP fraud, this is a sector-wide challenge and not unique to open banking. Our data-driven approach and industry partnerships are key to maintaining robust defences as adoption grows,” he added.