Policy and Regulation

EFRI analyses regulatory and enforcement gaps that allow online fraud schemes to operate across borders. Our policy work focuses on consumer protection, payment services regulation, crypto-assets regulation, anti-money laundering duties and the accountability of digital and financial intermediaries.

Payment Services and AML

Analysis of payment services regulation, anti-money laundering duties, transaction monitoring failures and the role of regulated financial intermediaries.

Crypto-Assets and Digital Platforms

Policy analysis on crypto-assets regulation, MiCA, online advertising, social media platforms and other digital infrastructure used to scale fraud schemes.

Consumer Protection

Research on legal and regulatory measures needed to protect consumers from online investment fraud, recovery scams and cross-border financial crime.

Regulatory Concerns

EFRI’s regulatory work examines whether existing legal frameworks are sufficient to address the role of intermediaries in online fraud schemes, and where supervision, enforcement or legislative reform is required.

– Weak onboarding and monitoring of high-risk merchants
– Cross-border enforcement gaps between national authorities
– Misuse of payment and crypto infrastructure
– Insufficient accountability of platforms, affiliates and advertising networks

Reports and Publications

EFRI publishes policy notes, regulatory complaints and submissions addressing systemic weaknesses in consumer protection, payment services supervision and financial crime enforcement.

Examples are as follows:

Our Proposal for a Shared Liability Reform to restore Trust in Payment Rails. Read here on SSRN.