UK banks have agreed to share “intelligence” with Meta in an effort to combat financial scammers.

Meta announced on Wednesday that the Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (FIRE), which was launched as a six-month pilot in the Spring, will be expanded.

The exchange agreement means participating banks share fraud intelligence with Meta, which uses it to seek out and shut down scam accounts.

According to Meta, approximately 20,000 accounts run by scammers were shut down during the initial pilot, including a concert ticket scam network targeting consumers in the UK and the US.

NatWest and Metro Bank were the first to sign up to the programme, with more expected to follow.

“Spotting and stopping fraudsters before they are able to target customers is the best way to address this growing problem,” said NatWest retail banking CEO David Lindberg.

“Partnering with Meta is an important step in tackling the epidemic of fraud. We welcome the opportunity to deepen our collaboration and ensure a cross-industry approach to fraud prevention and enforcement.”

The agreement was welcomed by law enforcement bodies including the City of London Police and the National Economic Crime Centre.

It is vital for the tech industry to help in the fight against online fraud,” said Nik Adams, temporary assistant commissioner of the City of London Police.

“We hope this expansion will rapidly increase Meta’s ability to act upon harmful content and to support the wider fight against fraud through the sharing of intelligence and insight that disrupt criminals, design out fraud, and protect victims.”