Confirmation of Payee

Confirmation of Payee, or CoP, is a beneficiary name checking service used when initiating payments within the UK online. For your online banking account this will be when you create a new payee. An additional service to help you ensure when you make a payment you make it to the right recipient.

Confirmation of Payee launched as a service in 2020 and now the Payment Systems Regulator has mandated all payment service providers to offer the service. Some types of payment service providers, such as all banks must offer Confirmation of Payee by  31st October 2023. All remaining payments service providers such as building societies must offer the service no later than 31st October 2024.

Yes. The Payment Systems Regulator has issued a Specific Direction that some types of  payment service providers (PSPs”) such as banks must offer the service by 31st October 2023 and the remaining PSPs by 31st October 2024.

When you create a new payee from your online banking account a request is sent to the payment service provider you have provided the details for, who will then supply a response to you saying whether the account name is:
i)    An exact match according to their records, or
ii)    A close but not exact match, or
iii)    Not a match, or
iv)    Unavailable and a Confirmation of Payee check could not be conducted

When someone wants to make a payment to your CAF Bank account they will go through the same process, assuming their payment service provider are Confirmation of Payee participants.

No. The Confirmation of Payee check applies only when setting up new payees although if want to check you have the correct name you could delete the existing payee and create a new one.

You will not be able to edit the name, sort code or account number but you will still be able to edit the reference field. If you want to change the name, sort code and / or account number you can delete the payee and create a new one which will then receive a Confirmation of Payee check.

Yes, assuming that the payment service provider sending the payment are Confirmation of Payee participants. We will automatically send back a response showing whether the name provided is an exact match, close match or no match.

Yes and no. When you create a new payee it is mandatory to conduct a Confirmation of Payee check however if you do not wish for us to send a response when others are making payments to you in exceptional circumstances we may permit you to opt out of the service. This is an Industry wide service put in place to help prevent customers from making a payment to the wrong account, and to protect against scams by giving customers greater confidence they are paying who they intended. We therefore strongly recommend that all customers remain opted into Confirmation of Payee.

Opting out will mean that if you are the recipient of a payment, we will not be able to confirm your account details with a person or business who is making a payment to you.

To opt out of the service you should contact our customer services team on 03000 123 456 stating your reasons for requesting to opt out. We will carefully consider your request and will respond within as soon as reasonably possible.

Yes. Opting out of Confirmation of Payee is not irreversible and you can opt back in again at any time. Just contact our customer services team on 03000 123 456.

We need to know this so that we can include the information in the Confirmation of Payee request to the recipient’s payment service provider. This is then used to determine which Confirmation of Payee check to  return.

Yes. Banks and other Confirmation of Payee participants use the Open Banking directory service and secure technology to safely exchange Confirmation of Payee requests and responses.

Furthermore, Confirmation of Payee payment service providers must be accredited to use the Confirmation of Payee system and must undergo a rigorous on-boarding process as well as be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”).

This could be for a number of technical reasons such as the recipient payment service provider not being part of the Confirmation of Payee scheme or that they or the Confirmation of Payee scheme is experiencing technical problems. If this happens you will be given the option to either try again later or accept the payee creation without having a Confirmation of Payee check although if you select the latter we recommend being sure that you have the correct details for the payee. Further details about staying safe online and fraud prevention can be found on our security centre. 

This would depend on a number of factors including the response received after conducting the Confirmation of Payee check and the options selected such as whether to continue or not. The Confirmation of Payee rulebook dedicates a section to the subject of liability but if you believe you have made a payment to the wrong place you should contact our customer services team on 03000 123 456 immediately but note the return of the funds cannot be guaranteed.

If you have any complaints about Confirmation of Payee please contact our customer services team on 03000 123 456 who will either try to resolve the problem with you or pass the call onto our Complaints Team.

Partial match: This message indicates that the name of the payee is almost but not quite correct. The actual name of the payee from their payment service provider will be displayed, and you can choose to either accept this name or continue with the name you have entered. However, if you choose to continue without updating the name you will be accepting the risk that we may not be able to get your money back if it ends up going to a different to account to the one you intended.

No match: If you receive a no match, first check you have entered the details correctly. If you have, then you should contact the person or business you are trying to pay to confirm the account name, sort code, account number and account type (Business account or Personal account). Remember to contact that person on a number that you know to be theirs and beware of any new communication requesting payment or different contact details.

If, after checking with the person or business you are trying to pay, they inform you that the details are correct, we recommend that you request they contact their payment provider (usually their bank or building society) to confirm the details that are held on their account match those provided to you.

If things still don’t seem right, it could indicate a scam. Fraudsters will attempt to trick you into sending money by posing as an individual or company that you trust, such as your bank, your internet service provider or a trusted supplier. To help you avoid this, you should carefully consider whether the payment request is genuine or you may lose your money. This is especially true where you receive a ‘no match’ response following a Confirmation of Payee check.

Remember that we will NEVER contact you and ask you to move money to keep it safe.

If this happens then make sure they are using the correct sort code, account number and your account name in their payment and also check that they are making the payment to a business account rather than a personal account.

One benefit is that Confirmation of Payee checks that you are using the correct details for the payments you want to make, as well as checking that individuals or businesses have the correct details when making payments to your account. It helps cut down on the number of misdirected payments and helps to protect against certain types of fraud.

No, but it will help in reducing certain types of frauds, in particular Authorised Push Payment fraud where someone is tricked into sending money to a fraudster posing as a genuine payee.

Confirmation of Payee aims to give our customers greater confidence they are paying who they intended. Our priority is to keep your money safe and secure. We’re introducing this name checking service to help protect you from so called “authorised push payment” scams. These are scams where people are tricked into sending money to criminals, who often pretend to be people they are not. It will also help avoid simple mistakes like mis-typing account details when you set up a new payment.