Confirmation of Payee (COP) has a key role in the instant payments infrastructure as a service that verifies account names prior to making a payment, the scheme ensures that funds are being transferred to the correct account.
The service is a barrier against fraud, and helps build trust of consumers. Across the globe, Confirmation of Payee has been adopted in India, Pakistan, Australia, Vietnam, China, and Brazil.
The recent European instant payments mandate will require PSPs to be capable of sending and receiving euro payments within seconds. The requirements of the scheme will encourage more banks to adopt Confirmation of Payee, and allow customers a further insight to how their payments are being processed.
Confirmation of Payee has seen success in the UK, with over 100 financial institutions using the service. As the new PSR scheme is rolled out, it is likely that more organisations will jump on the trend.
However, further adoption of Confirmation of Payee will either require interoperability between systems, where migration to ISO 20022 can ensure harmonisation and shared data between providers and banks, or a native pan-European solution.
EBA CLEARING recently announced that it will provide its users with Verification of Payee at a pan-European level as from December 2024. The roll-out of Verification of Payee is one element in the comprehensive preparation programme that the company is engaging in with its user community.
With the delivery of Verification of Payee, it will support PSPs in offering IBAN/name matching services to their customers for their SEPA transactions. The pan-European service will be aligned with the respective scheme of the European Payments Council.
Looking at how new instant payments systems will be implemented across financial organisations in Europe, the EBAday 2024 agenda has outlined the role of instant payments and concerning regulation as key discussion points for the future payments infrastructure in Europe. Furthermore, as financial crime evolves, so must payments security.
Discover how leading organisations are approaching fraud prevention, and what initiatives are in play for global real-time payments to scale up at EBAday in Lisbon, Portugal on 18-19 June 2024. Register here.