Barclays wins U.K. Supreme Court appeal over fraud protection, Reuters says

Barclays was victorious in a U.K. Supreme Court appeal that turned on the extent of lenders’ duties to protect customers from fraudsters, Reuters’ Sam Tobin and Kirstin Ridley report. In a unanimous judgement that lawyers claim would be of “enormous relief” to the financial sector, Supreme Court Judge George Leggatt said that a bank ignoring a customer’s instructions if it had reasonable grounds to suspect they were being defrauded would be “inconsistent with first principles of banking law” as he overturned a 2021 Court of Appeal ruling, the author notes. “Where the customer has authorised and instructed the bank to make a payment, the bank must carry out the instruction promptly,” he said. “It is not for the bank to concern itself with the wisdom or risks of its customer’s payment decisions.”