CBA’s Fraud Management Committee Chair to Congress: We Need a National Task Force to Combat Fraud and Scams

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Testifying before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee at a hearing entitled "Fighting Fraud on the Front Lines: Challenges and Opportunities for Financial Institutions" today, Consumer Bankers Association (CBA) Fraud Management Committee Chair Patrick McDade reiterated the need for a whole-of-government approach to combat fraud and scams in order to better protect hardworking Americans.

Key excerpts from McDade's oral testimony and responses to questions from the Committee are below.

On how banks are leading the way to combat fraud and scams, McDade said:

"CBA's broad membership has long been raising the alarm about the rise in fraud and scams that are inflicting deep financial and emotional harm on American consumers and small businesses. Banks invest billions of dollars and millions of hours to combat fraudsters and scammers each year."

On the need for a national task force to combat fraud, which would include alignment across federal and state agencies, McDade said:

"We are calling for a national task force on fraud, and we think that one of the things we need is alignment across all the different agencies and all the law enforcement entities. The reality is, when a fraud report is made by a consumer, there isn't necessarily a specific agency that they can point to pick it up, because different agencies have different mandates, and then you have the local law enforcement. I would say something to be done in that direction would be the GUARD Act that's being talked about."

On the importance of cross-industry collaboration to stop fraud and scams at the source, McDade said:

"One of the recommendations I made in my [testimony] was to […] revise the SAR policy so we have a fraud signal report. And this would not be something that is a lagging indicator, but as soon as we're aware of fraud happening, we have a concise way to get the metadata associated with that fraud reported to law enforcement. And if all the banks did that in the same fashion, they could immediately cross-reference that essential data and see the patterns and actually reach out and warn other banks that they might have fraudulent accounts or even go upstream to the telecomms and the social media companies and let them know where we're seeing fraud."

To watch McDade's oral testimony, click HERE. To read McDade's full written testimony, click HERE.

CBA Advocacy

• To read CBA's letter to the Financial Institutions Subcommittee in advance of Patrick McDade's testimony, click HERE.
• To read a CBA comment letter sent in response to a joint request for information issued by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation regarding potential actions to address payments fraud, click HERE.
• To read a summary of the cross-industry convening CBA hosted in July 2024 on combating fraud and scams, click HERE.
• To read the white paper that CBA commissioned in 2024 on combating fraud and scams, click HERE.
• To read a recent op-ed from CBA Vice President, Associate General Counsel Brian Fritzsche published in Open Banker calling for a coordinated, national response to protect consumers from increasingly sophisticated financial fraud and scams, click HERE.
• To read an April 2025 op-ed in The Hill from CBA President and CEO Lindsey Johnson calling for lawmakers to support a whole-of-government approach to combat fraud and scams, click HERE.