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Banks are still routinely refusing requests from scam victims for their losses to be made good, even when all the evidence suggests that customers were not to blame.
Pre-paid card firms supplying councils acted ‘as a cartel’, regulator says
Three out of five firms that issue councils with pre-paid cards have admitted to breaching competition rules and agreed to pay maximum penalties totalling over £32m.
The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has alleged that Mastercard, allpay, APS, PFS and Sulion engaged in anti-competitive behaviour by agreeing not to poach each other’s clients.
The case relates to pre-paid cards that are used by local authorities to distribute welfare payments to vulnerable members of society.
The regulator alleges that there were two infringements of the Competition Act 1998 that took the form of market sharing or customer allocation. One lasted between 2012 and 2018 and involved all five parties and the other was between 2014 and 2016 and involved APS and PFS.
PFS and
Sulion took part in “anti-competitive” behavior by “agreeing not to compete or poach each other’s clients.”
As mentioned in the announcement, the case deals with pre-paid cards that are regularly used by local authorities to hand out welfare payments to “vulnerable members” of society, including the homeless, victims of domestic violence, and asylum seekers.
In its Statement of Objections, sent to the five different parties on March 31, 2021, the Payment Systems Regulator has alleged that there had been 2 infringements of the Competition Act 1998 that “took the form of market sharing/customer allocation”:
One “lasting six years (between 2012 and 2018) and involving all five parties.”