Confirmation of Payee (CoP) is a banking security feature that verifies the recipient’s name alongside their account number and sort code during payment initiation. This added verification helps mitigate fraud and ensures payments reach the intended accounts, offering users heightened protection.

The service works by ensuring the name of the person you are paying matches the one on the account you are paying money into.

Confirmation of Payee has had a substantial impact in light of COVID-19 and the increasing manipulation of victims by fraudsters, both in terms of minimising wrongly misdirected payments and reducing what would have likely been a higher increase in Authorised Push Payment (APP) scams.

Every year, local authorities and businesses are duped into paying money to an account controlled by a fraudster. According to statistics, APP scams cost £355 million in the first half of 2021, surpassing card fraud losses.

Annually, a significant number of payments are issued that do not reach the intended recipient due to inaccuracies in the information provided or inputted, which are then unable to be recovered but must still be repaid. Plans to expand the Confirmation of Payee programme will give new opportunities to help manage these risks.

By introducing Confirmation of Payee local authorities and companies could save thousands of pounds by ensuring the right person is transferred money to the right account.