GCHQ director Jeremy Fleming has said the agency will begin sharing real-time intelligence with banks in a bid to help fight cyber crime.

The decision will ensure that banks have more tools in their arsenal when it comes to protecting customers against card and account fraud while also helping the banks themselves in pre-empting and mitigating cyber attacks on them.

Fleming, who made the announcement at a CyberUK event in Glasgow on Wednesday, said the move illustrates GCHQ's ambition to work more closely with businesses.

The agency monitors online activity on a 24/7 basis and will now share this information with banking groups, an idea which aims to reduce the number of cyber attacks GCHQ has to deal with itself.

Figures revealed in October last year showed that the agency fights around ten serious cyber attacks every week, most of which were either "directed, sponsored or tolerated" by hostile foreign governments.

"This move from GCHQ illustrates how collaboration across all industries involved in the fight against fraud is crucial to facing today's threats and keeping customers safe," said Marck Crichton, senior director of security product management, OneSpan. "The fight against fraud today relies heavily on the analysis of vast amounts of real-time data [and] with technology-enabled financial crime increasing, banks need to be able to act fast".