November 22, 2013 - Scotland Yard chief Bernard Hogan-Howe is calling on banks to help fund a new London cyber-crime fighting unit, admitting that traditional policing methods are failing against high-tech crooks.

The Met, through the Police Central e-crime Unit, has until recently been responsible for fighting cyber-crime in England and Wales but a new National Crime Agency is taking over its duties and poaching many of its officers.

In a column for the London Evening Standard, Commissioner Hogan-Howe says that the Met will now create another unit as part of a "major step change" in the way online crime is treated.

Despite the fact that there has been a 60% rise in the number of reported cyber-crimes over the last year, Hogan-Howe admits that only a fraction of those which go through the Action Fraud centre ever make it to the police.

The Met will take a far more aggressive approach to taking on the crooks, dedicating "hundreds more officers" to catching perpetrators, improving prevention and tackling organised gangs.

To help fund the new push, Hogan-Howe says he will speak to partners in the commercial sector, "especially in the banking industry," who often bear the brunt of fraud-related costs.

Earlier this year the Home Affairs Committee accused banks of letting cyber-crooks carry out crime in a 'black hole' of impunity by failing to report or investigate fraud.

Says Hogan-Howe: "We know that banks absorb a huge amount of the cost of this type of crime while hugely under-reporting it, and I hope a reinvigorated partnership can improve this state of affairs."