Verification of Payee (VoP)

What is the Verification of Payee (VoP)?

Verification of Payee (VoP) is a feature which will allow you to check that you are sending your payment to the correct payee. You will be asked to verify that the payee’s name matches the account name held at the payee’s bank, helping ensure your transfer is being made to the right person. 

‍

What is the purpose of VOP?

The main purpose is to prevent fraud that can affect both instant and normal SEPA Payments. It has been designed to make bank transfers safer and more reliable by confirming that the beneficiary’s name matches their IBAN before the payment is processed. How does the Verification of Payee work?

The VoP is a verification check, where the beneficiary’s IBAN and name are forwarded to the beneficiary bank for verification. The beneficiary bank will verify that the name matches the account and report back to the requesting bank with its results. 

The result of the VoP check will be displayed to you (the Payer) before the payment is authorised.

‍

What VOP results can I receive?

The results of the VoP check will be one of the following:

• Match: the beneficiary’s name matches with the name at the beneficiary bank; 
• Partial Match: there is a partial match (for example, just the surname);
• No Match: there is no match, that is, the name as inputted was not found with the beneficiary bank;
• No reply: there was no reply from the beneficiary bank;
• Error: an unexpected error occurred in returning the result.

The payer can then decide, based on the VoP status, whether they wish to proceed with payment or not. 

‍

In the case of No Match or Partial Match, can the payment still proceed?

Yes, payments are processed based on a valid IBAN, so even if the VoP result was a ‘No Match’ or ‘Partial Match’, the payment will still be executed if customer decides to proceed. However, this means that the customer assumes responsibility for potential fraud or loss.

‍

Is VOP applicable to single or bulk payments?

Yes, VoP is available for all SEPA Credit Transfers and instant payments for single and bulk (grouped) payment files. 

VoP does not currently apply to SEPA Direct Debit.

‍