Considering opting for confirmation of payee service?

Are you a financial institution and still considering opting for confirmation of payee service? In the most recent announcement Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) extended confirmation of payee service to more banks. From confirmation of payee phase 2, the stats suggested banks adhering to confirmation of payee service saw lesser Authorised Push Payments (APP) scams and frauds.

Simply put, Confirmation of payee service checks accounts and reference details when a new CHAPS or Faster Payment is set up. This added layer ensures payments aren’t sent to the wrong account.

Is confirmation of payee mandatory?

Financial institutions that don’t participate risk a heavy competitive disadvantage and may face greater liability in the event of fraud, affecting overall customer experience and service. While CoP is not yet mandatory, more and more banks and financial institutions are themselves opting for confirmation of payee service.

CoP should not be taken as an administrative burden but as an opportunity to resolve payment fraud. Implementing CoP will assist as an additional security layer against payment fraud and increase credibility in customers' eyes.

Confirmation of Payee system is one of the many ways the finance industry is tackling online transaction fraud. To keep transactions safe, it’s crucial that customer information is updated and that payee confirmation is through before sending payment. To verify the account, the payee reference number checker quickly runs the details (the full name of the person or business you want to pay).

It would help if customers could also watch out for

• Payment requests from people you know
• Pressure to make a payment – check for genuine accounts and don't rush to initiate transaction
• Changes/updates to account details

Quick Payee Confirmation for Safer Transactions with Exela

Exela Confirmation of Payee service adheres to the latest specification by Pay.UK and conforms to the security requirements of Open Banking. Being an internet-facing web service, Exela CoP is rapidly deployable and can be quickly set up to operate.

Exela’s Confirmation of Payee system offers high efficiency with a turnaround of ~ 100ms, enabling highly accurate matching results. Exela CoP uses AI and advanced matching algorithms to tackle problems relating to issues for name matching, such as missing components, spelling differences, truncated names and so on. This perfection results from over 30 years of fine-tuning and constant improvement. Today, Exela’s account name validation services have been protecting over 400 banks across Europe.

Get in touch with us today and learn how you can quickly adapt to Confirmation of Payee service with Exela.