Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey has been lobbying the British government to initiate a legal requirement for large internet companies such as Google to take down financial fraud websites.
The report, cited from the Sunday Times by Reuters, said Bailey had been asking for the measure to be added to an Online Harms Bill expected to be put before parliament in 2021. A Bank of England spokeswoman said the central bank did not comment on private meetings. Still, she mentioned the topic fell under the remit of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rather than the Bank of England.
The Online Harms Bill would force internet companies to tackle problems such as online child grooming and terrorism, but not financial fraud which increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Critics accuse Google of benefiting from fraud because companies or individuals seeking to advertise dubious get-rich-quick schemes or other scams can pay the tech company for prominent slots in search results, the Sunday Times reported.
Google says it takes down scam websites when notified and has in the past blamed poor guidance from regulators for difficulties in implementing rules about fraud.
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