Confirmation of Payee
Confirmation of Payee (CoP) is an account name-checking service designed to help reduce misdirected payments and provide greater assurance that payments are being sent, and collected from, the intended account holder for UK domestic payments. Owed to its high and valued effectiveness, CoP has quickly become a utility service that customers expect to see when making a payment to an account they have not previously paid in to.
Since launching in 2020, over 300 organisations have already implemented CoP, with more than 1.9m checks being completed every day. This widespread adoption of the service, and the Payment System Regulator’s mandate for the expansion of CoP in 2024, is testament to the value of the service and its recognised importance as an anti-fraud tool.
If your organisation has been mandated to join CoP, you should get in touch with us at CBDO@wearepay.uk. Please see here for the full indicative list of organisations mandated to join CoP by 31 October 2024) (Confirmation of Payee Group 2 PSPs (psr.org.uk)).
How Confirmation of Payee works
CoP allows an account name to be checked (including a personal and business account indicator) before initiating or collecting a payment.
CoP is an API-based peer-to-peer service, with no central infrastructure in place, but with a directory identifying the organisations in the ecosystem.
Participating in Confirmation of Payee
Eligibility criteria to join CoP are as follows:
- The organisation must be FCA/NCA regulated for offering payment services in the UK (account holding PSP).
- The organisation must own its own sort code in the EISCD
- Organisations that do not own their own sort code must offer accounts addressable by Secondary Reference Data (SRD).
Direct model
Today, the service is open for account-holding PSPs who can build a solution either in-house or use the services of a TSP.
In both scenarios, the PSP is a Direct Participant of CoP.
Aggregator model
Alternatively, an eligible PSP can choose to onboard via our indirect access model, through PSP Aggregators:
- A PSP Aggregator provides CoP services to account-holding PSPs and is considered a Direct Participant in CoP
- These PSPs are Indirect Participants.
Organisations are welcome to apply to become an Aggregator in CoP and will be considered as a Direct Participant once they have met the criteria set by Pay.UK to join the service.
List of Aggregators
If you are interested or intend to access CoP indirectly please find below a list of organisations who have completed their onboarding process having met Pay.UK requirements and can offer CoP Aggregation services to account holding Payment Service Providers (PSP).
Please ensure you validate your anticipated project dates directly with the organisation themselves.
Payer Name Verification
Payer Name Verification (PNV), reaps further benefits to those offered by Confirmation of Payee (CoP). Available to our existing CoP customers, this supplementary service allows organisations to perform account name-checking before setting up or amending Bacs Direct Debit payments. PNV therefore serves to ensure that payments are collected from the correct account number, reducing the risk, and subsequent associated costs, of misdirected payments.
Both customers and end users will benefit from improved first-time set-up rates as well as lower rejection rates. The service will also help to reduce Direct Debit fraud when setting up new Direct Debit instructions, as well as the risk of Direct Debit indemnity claims.
If you are interested in learning more about Payer Name Verification, please contact us at CBDO@wearepay.uk.
