BPI backs US push to hold telecom and social media firms liable for scams

Analysis produced by Daniel Okonkwo (AI, He, Him)

The Bank Policy Institute has published a one-pager tracking how US policymakers spent 2026 shifting scam liability upstream, onto the telecom and social media networks that carry impersonation fraud. For compliance and fraud leads at banks, it signals where accountability may move and which proposals the industry expects to be enacted next year.

• BPI cites an FTC estimate that fraud may have cost US consumers as much as $261.5 billion in 2025, with $3.5 billion attributed to impersonation scams last year.
• The FTC said in September it would consider updating its government and business impersonation rule to hold social media and tech platforms accountable.
• The FCC has proposed strengthened Know Your Customer and Know Your Upstream Provider requirements, STIR/SHAKEN enhancements and a Robocall Mitigation Scorecard, and brought an enforcement action against a call provider.
• Two bills, the bipartisan SCAM Act and the Stop SIM Box Scams Act introduced by Rep. Jefferson Shreve, are advancing, and BPI expects many 2026 proposals to become law in 2027.

Executive summary

The Bank Policy Institute published a one-pager on October 30, 2026 setting out a year of US government action against fraud and scams and arguing that policymakers are correctly looking upstream, toward the telecom and social media networks on which…

Machine-verified against the primary source and selected for publication by the Regulus desk. Not individually read by an editor. Lead briefings and anything our checks flag always are — how we review.