Description

About the Seminar

This seminar will consider how law and regulation should respond to the grave and growing problem of ‘authorised push payment’ (APP) bank fraud. APP fraud occurs when bank customers are tricked into transferring money from their account, thinking that they are engaged in a legitimate transaction. It is particularly harmful for victims, and it is an increasingly significant threat, catalysed by the rise of remote banking, AI technology and social media. Jo will explore the legal lacuna traditionally facing victims of APP fraud, before turning to the latest developments in the UK, considering both the private law and regulatory contexts. In particular, the seminar will consider the UK’s new, mandatory and ‘world first’ reimbursement scheme, covering APP frauds conducted over two major payment infrastructures. The seminar will explore the private law background and policy choices underlying this new scheme, in place from October 2024, and will consider its controversial aspects, limits, and whether any insights should be drawn from the UK’s approach by other jurisdictions currently debating their own responses to the urgent problem of APP fraud.

About the Speaker

Jo Braithwaite is a professor of international commercial finance law at LSE Law School. Her research relates to the use of private law in the international markets, with a particular focus on the derivatives markets, the use of standard form contracts and the resilience of financial market infrastructure. Recent projects have included a book published by Cambridge University Press on the role of the courts in the global financial markets (‘The Financial Courts’, joint winner of the triennial Main Book Prize awarded by the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple), articles on bank fraud and on post-Brexit financial regulation, and several studies into default management and recovery/ resolution in the context of central counterparties (a type of financial market infrastructure).

Jo joined LSE Law School in 2008. She has a PhD from the University of London, a LLM degree from the University of Pennsylvania where she was a Thouron scholar, and a BA(Hons) from the University of Oxford. She was awarded a Modern Law Review Scholarship during her PhD. Before undertaking her PhD, she qualified as a solicitor and practised in a City law firm. Jo teaches various financial, banking and commercial law subjects and is a PhD supervisor. She has won several LSE awards for teaching and education.