PIMFA welcomes publication of Online Safety Bill

PIMFA, the trade association for wealth management, investment services and the investment and financial advice industry, has welcomed the publication of the Online Safety Bill but calls on the Government to include all financial harms within the scope of the Bill. 

Tim Fassam, Director of Government Relations and Policy at PIMFA, comments: “The publication of the Online Safety Bill in its current form is a great step forward in the battle to stop organised criminals defrauding the public. But while the Bill attempts to tackle fraud via user generated content on social media sites and dating apps, paid for online adverts from fraudsters and cloned – and therefore fake – investment firm websites appear conspicuous by their absence from it.  
 
“We are, however, encouraged that the Bill will face pre-legislative scrutiny before being formally introduced to the House of Commons and look forward to working with Ministers and MPs in order to ensure that all financial harms, which have a devasting impact on the financial and mental wellbeing of victims, are included in the Bill.  
 
“As we, and our partners, have said from the beginning of this campaign, social media websites, search engines and domain name registration services all need to take responsibility for preventing online fraudsters from operating on their platforms.”