In the banking world, fintech firm Revolut is calling on Meta to commit to sharing the cost of reimbursing of fraud victims.

Revolut argues that Meta’s new data sharing initiative with UK banks and financial institutions “falls woefully short of what’s required to tackle fraud globally”.

Meta has announced it will expand its data sharing scheme with more financial institutions, to help stop scammers who use social networks to defraud users.

Nathaniel Gleicher, Meta’s global head of counter-fraud, explained:

“We will only beat these criminals if we work together and share relevant information related to scams. Financial institutions can share unique information with us which we can in turn use to train our systems to take action against more scams globally.”

But Revolut’s head of financial crime, Woody Malouf, says Meta’s scheme isn’t good enough:

“These plans are baby steps, when what the industry really needs is giant leaps forward. What our latest report on financial crime shows is that social media platforms not only continue to enable fraud, but that the issue is just as bad today as it was last year. Victims and financial institutions still ultimately bear the cost. These platforms share no responsibility in reimbursing victims, and so they have no incentive to do anything about it. A commitment to data sharing, albeit needed, simply isn’t good enough.

“We are confident in the steps the UK government is taking to tackle fraud, but what is urgently needed now is for Meta and other social media companies to commit to supporting victims of fraud in the same way financial institutions do. Their silence on this issue says it all.

“We are prepared to do our part to keep customers safe, and so should they. We should be the last line of defence, not the only line of defence.”

Meta’s plans, and Revolut’s criticism, come as the government brings in new rules which mean fraud victims wiill receiving up to £85,000 in refunds from banks within five days of an authorised push payment scam.

Banks, though, argue that technology companies must do more.

Last month David Callington, the head of fraud at HSBC UK, told The Guardian that tech firms should be made to cover the cost of fraud perpetrated over their networks.

The costs of fraud will also now be shared equally by the banks and payment firms on both sides of the transaction, meaning there will be a fresh burden on the companies whose accounts receive the victims’ cash.

Royal Bank of Canada have revised their forecasts for UK interest rates, following BoE governor Andrew Bailey’s interview in the Guardian today.

RBC now believes there is scope for the Bank’s monetary policy committee to deliver “more and faster easing than previously”.

They now predict the Bank will cut interest rates by 25 basis points, or a quarter of one percentage point, “at successive MPC meetings between November this year and May next year.”

Previously, they had expected the Bank to cut in November but hold rates, at 4.75%, in December.

As well as two more cuts this year (November and December, following the cut in August), they also anticipate cuts at the Bank’s meetings in February, March and May.

RBC say that equates to the BoE delivering 150bps of cuts in total in this current cycle to leave Bank Rate at 3.75% – 50bp more than it had penciled in hitherto.

Italy’s stock market is having a bad day too, as investors react to the prospect of a new windfall tax.

According to Bloomberg, Italian Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti has said Italy plans to raise taxes on the companies that benefitted most from the economic turbulence of recent years in order to help bring down the country’s budget deficit.

In an interview for Bloomberg’s Future of Finance event in Milan today, Giorgetti suggested that a number of industries could face new levies.

He says:

We will be approving a budget that will require sacrifices from everyone, which means taxing extra profits.

“It means taxing profits made and revenues made, and it is an effort that the whole country must undertake which means individuals, but also small, medium and large companies.”

Italy’s FTSE MIB share index is down 1.35% today, the biggest fall among major European markets today.

Back in the markets, the pound is on track for its worst day against the euro in almost two years.

The rapid repricing of the outlook for UK interest rates has pushed sterling down by over 1% against the euro.

It’s down 1.3 eurocents now, at €1.188.

This would be the biggest one-day drop, in both points and percentage terms, since 15 December 2022.

Deutsche Bank have just published a research note on the market reaction to our interview with Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey.

In it, they point out that markets have been pushing up the chances of an interest rate cut in December, as well as at November’s meeting.

A cut in November now looks very likely, but could the Bank actually manage two cuts by Christmas?

Deutsche’s strategist Shreyas Gopal writes:

One simple interpretation of the Governor’s comments is that it could now take an upside surprise to inflation for the MPC not to cut rates back-to-back in November and December.

Previously the guidance suggested that the burden of proof was on inflation to surprise to the downside for such a shift away from the “gradual” pace of easing. Consistent with that interpretation, the rates market has notably increased its pricing for the December meeting. It’s the largest dovish repricing of this particular meeting in over six months, though in level terms we have simply reverted to levels seen just a couple of weeks ago.

Here’s our news story on the pound’s tumble today:

Today is turning into the pound’s worst day in over 18 months.

Update: at 12.20pm, sterling is down around 1.2% so far today against the US dollar at around $1.31, a drop of over 1.5 cents.

That would be its biggest one-day drop against the dollar since 7 March 2023.

The pound has been dropping steadily through the day, after the governor of the Bank of England told the Guardian it could become a “bit more aggressive” in cutting interest rates if inflation continues to cool.