Banking regulations and legacy technology systems are playing a critical role in enabling economic abuse, according to new academic research that is urging UK banks to reassess how their products and digital services are designed.
According to Finextra, researchers at Northumbria University have called on financial institutions to review their technology estates and operational practices to better prevent economic abuse, a legally recognised form of abuse under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 in England and Wales. Economic abuse occurs when an abusive intimate partner or ex-partner restricts, exploits or sabotages a victim’s access to money, housing, transport, technology or other economic resources.
The findings are detailed in a new report titled Designing Out Economic Abuse in the UK Banking Industry: A Call To Action, which examines how everyday banking products, services and technologies can be deliberately weaponised by perpetrators to exert control and cause harm. The research highlights that features designed for speed, convenience and shared access can unintentionally create opportunities for abuse when safeguards are insufficient.
The study was informed by a participatory design approach, bringing together six victim-survivors of economic abuse and six banking professionals drawn from five major UK banks. By combining lived experience with industry insight, the researchers sought to identify both the practical barriers banks face and the areas where meaningful change is possible.
One of the central findings is that many current responses from banks are reactive rather than preventative, often addressing abuse only after significant harm has already occurred. Dr Clare Wiper, assistant professor in criminology at Northumbria University’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences, said: “Many current banking responses to economic abuse are largely reactive – taking place after harm has occurred. Our participants have shown that banks have significant opportunities to be more proactive, and that this isn’t always about massive investment or revolutionary technology – sometimes it’s about asking one additional question during joint account opening or ensuring that digital banking features are designed with victim-survivor safety in mind.”
Victims involved in the study identified several priority interventions that could materially reduce harm. These include improved training for frontline banking staff to recognise and respond sensitively to signs of economic abuse, as well as changes to account structures and terms and conditions. One proposal is to treat joint account holders as ‘tenants in common’, similar to joint home ownership models, enabling banks to split balances where abuse is identified. Other suggested measures include requiring consent from both account holders for large withdrawals, reducing the ability for one party to drain shared funds.
The report also outlines the structural challenges banks face, including regulatory constraints, rapid technological change that can be exploited by abusers, and the difficulty of managing abusive customers without increasing the risk of retaliation against victim-survivors. Despite these obstacles, the researchers argue that there are clear opportunities for progress, such as adapting existing fraud detection tools and introducing enhanced verification for certain online transactions.
Dr Belén Barros Pena, interaction designer and researcher at City St George’s, University of London, said: “This research shows how our always-on, fast and convenient financial technologies have unintended consequences and can be misappropriated for harmful purposes. In their current form, financial technologies are not designed to frustrate or prevent such harms. To change this, we must ensure victim-survivors have a voice and can contribute to technology-making processes.”
The authors conclude that addressing economic abuse will require closer collaboration between regulators, banks and technology teams, alongside a shift towards designing financial services with safety and inclusivity as core principles rather than afterthoughts.
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