A valid IBAN tells you the account number is structurally correct. It says nothing about whether the account belongs to the person or company you intend to pay. That gap is exactly where misdirected payments and fraud live — and it's why IBAN validation and Verification of Payee are complementary, not interchangeable.
What IBAN validation does
IBAN validation comes in two depths. Basic validation checks the format and the checksum — is this a well-formed IBAN? Detailed validation goes further, identifying the bank and branch behind it. Both are useful, and both are fast, but neither confirms ownership.
Valid ≠ verified
A fraudster's IBAN is perfectly valid. Format and checksum checks wave it through. Only a name check — Verification of Payee — exposes that the account doesn't belong to the intended payee.
What Verification of Payee adds
VoP asks the payee's bank whether the name matches the IBAN, returning match, close match, no match or not applicable. It's the only one of these checks that confirms who owns the account — the question that actually stops invoice redirection and APP fraud.
The 'IBAN trio'
The strongest approach uses all three: basic validation (format), detailed validation (bank/branch) and Verification of Payee (ownership). RoxPay groups these as an 'IBAN trio', so you can confirm an IBAN is well-formed, identify the institution, and verify the payee — all from one platform via API and dashboard.