ANAO reveals cost to industry of scams framework

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor and Publisher

25 June 2026

An Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) report into the Government’s new Scams Prevention Framework (SPF) has revealed the multi-million dollar costs it will impose on business initially, and ongoing.

The report also reveals Treasury’s view that at least one measure of success of the new framework will be a 4.6% reduction of the $2.7 billion reported scam losses in 2023.

As well, the ANAO report has found that while Treasury has satisfactorily overseen initiation of the scams framework, it has so far failed to put in place the mechanisms to measure whether it is actually succeeding.

The ANAO report states that Treasury’s impact analysis of the SPF identified the likely regulatory burden on industry with Treasury having identified an initial increased cost to business of $228.8 million in the first year and ongoing annual costs of $88 million a year.

The report said the average cost over 10 years was $102.1 million per year.

The report also notes that as part of the implementation of the new arrangements, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) is to receive funding of $14.7 million to establish a capacity to handle scam disputes through external dispute resolution (EDR).

The report pointed to a Treasury impact analysis of the sectors carrying most of the cost with digital platforms most exposed, followed by banking and then telecommunications.

It said the SPF cost-benefit analysis approach had been assessed with a ‘break-even’ analysis, and the benefit of the framework is based on whether the implementation cost is less than the benefits of the SPF measured by the level of scam harm reduced by the SPF.

The ANAO report notes that “there is a lack of defined benchmark data to justify the cost-benefit analysis and said Treasury advised the ANAO in March 2026 that ‘the lack of relevant benchmarks is appropriate for the objective to provide a threshold for the policy to demonstrate value, and appropriate at the time, given the novelty of the regulatory approach and complexity in the ecosystem’.

The report said the data underlying the $2.7 billion loss is based on sources for Scamwatch.

“These sources do not fully align with the potential sources identified by Treasury for possible performance measurement in the impact analysis for Scamwatch data sources and for impact analysis sources),” it said.

“Consistent baseline data supports embedding monitoring and evaluation activities into implementation planning. Treasury’s implementation planning does not include plans to develop benchmark data,” the ANAO said.

The ANAO recommended that Treasury consider developing methodology to establish and measure the benefit of the SPF by agreeing benchmark data between entities involved in delivery