Since launching in 2020, Confirmation of Payee has transformed the way people in the UK make payments, offering a vital layer of protection against misdirected payments and fraud.
Having just celebrated its five-year anniversary in June, our Confirmation of Payee Product Owner, Anu Raman, recently joined David Monty, CEO at Tell.money, on its Tell.talks podcast, to reflect on the service’s evolution in the UK, its impact on fraud prevention, and where it is headed next. Below, we summarise some talking points from the session.
Listen to the full podcast here.
Anu & tell.money podcast
What’s is Confirmation of Payee?
Confirmation of Payee is our award-winning, account name-checking service that helps to reduce misdirected payments and provides greater assurance to end users in the UK that their payments are being transferred to, and collected from, the intended account holder.
Initially designed to address accidental misdirected payments, since its implementation in 2020, the service has continually demonstrated its value as an effective anti-fraud tool and has become a vital part of the payment process for both individuals and businesses.
As other countries begin rolling out similar systems (for example, SEPA’s Verification of Payee in the EU and Confirmation of Payee in Australia), Confirmation of Payee in the UK serves as a global framework. What started as a UK initiative has become an international reference point with the UK model often described as the “poster child” for consumer protection in payments.
Background
In August 2019, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) mandated six of the largest banking groups with a significant share of Faster Payment transactions in the UK (Barclays, NatWest Group, Santander, HSBC, Nationwide Building Society and Lloyds Banking Group), to implement Confirmation of Payee by June 2020. This was no easy challenge, and Anu recounted having to learn and adapt quickly to balance the regulatory deadlines set by the PSR with the realities of rapid industry implementation, – and all during a global crisis. Despite the challenges, the implementation proved highly successful.
Adoption
As the benefits of Confirmation of Payee became clear, adoption of the service increased voluntarily beyond the original mandated participants in subsequent years. Indeed, the introduction of an aggregator model in 2024 further bolstered numbers of participants; it allowed for indirect participation, simplifying access for smaller PSPs, particularly fintechs, and facilitated broader adoption of the service.
David commented that Tell.money was among the first accredited aggregators for Confirmation of Payee, meaning that the service became accessible for organisations that couldn’t otherwise support a full implementation. He highlighted that not only did the aggregator model accelerate onboarding to Confirmation of Payee, but it also reduced technical and financial burden for indirect PSPs, enabled broader access to fraud protection for end users, and supported greater inclusion for vulnerable customers and niche institutions.
Success
Today, the service is offered by almost 400 payment service providers (PSPs) in the UK, covering more than 99% of all payments through the Faster Payment System, Bacs Payment System and CHAPS. This has led to some impressive results, including:
– A remarkable increase in checks from 14,000 per month in June 2020 to over 70 million per month by July 2025, averaging 26 Confirmation of Payee checks every second.
– A direct impact in reducing certain types of misdirected payments made via the Faster Payment System. The Credit Payment Recovery sent claim percentage rate for the ‘incorrect account’ category (as a proportion of Faster Payment sent transactions), for example, is a sound indicator of a reduction in misdirected payments. Since the launch of Confirmation of Payee, we have seen a 59% reduction in this category and a 20-40% reduction in financial losses to end users for some types of fraud, according to the UK Finance Annual Fraud Report 2025.
What’s next for Confirmation of Payee?
Anu explained that the focus is now on evolving Confirmation of Payee into a smarter, more powerful tool that not only combats fraud and misdirected payments but also becomes a core component of the digital trust toolkit. This is already being explored through:
- The provision of richer data beyond name verification: Possibilities include account age, suspicious activity flags, or name changes, which would help to improve fraud risk assessments without compromising data privacy.
- Wider use cases: Confirmation of Payee could support verification in sectors, such as legal services, property transactions, or even as part of digital ID solutions.
- The decoupling from payments: Currently the service is tied to payments. However future iterations could support standalone identity verification.
- Global interoperability: As more countries adopt account-verification systems (for example, SEPA’s Verification of Payee in the EU), ensuring they can “talk to each other” will be vital to protecting cross-border transactions.
Anu said: “Everyone involved in the implementation of Confirmation of Payee, from Pay.UK to the banks, PSPs, and technology providers, should be incredibly proud of what has been achieved so far. The service is delivering real protection, at real scale – but the journey is far from over. The next phase will require industry-wide collaboration, smarter data, global alignment, and a commitment to making financial protection inclusive, accessible, and future-proof.”
