How much does Verification of Payee cost?
For the person making a payment, Verification of Payee is free — the EU requires it. For the banks, PSPs and businesses that provide the check, there is a real cost. Here's how it breaks down.
Is Verification of Payee free?
For payers, yes. The Instant Payments Regulation requires payment service providers to offer the VoP check free of charge to the person making the transfer — you are never billed for the name check on a payment.
The cost falls on the providers that have to offer the service. A bank or PSP must either build connectivity to the EPC VoP scheme or buy a managed API, and pay for each verification it requests. Businesses that want to verify supplier or payroll IBANs in bulk pay their VoP provider for that access.
What it costs depends who you are
If you're a payer
Free. The check is mandated to be free of charge — you'll never see a fee for VoP on a payment.
If you're a bank or PSP
You pay to provide VoP: either build and certify scheme connectivity, or use a managed API priced per check or by volume tier.
If you're a business
You pay your provider to verify supplier and payroll IBANs in bulk — typically per verification or on a subscription.
What drives the cost
- Volume — price per check usually drops at higher monthly volumes
- Build vs buy — building scheme connectivity in-house carries a large fixed cost; a managed API turns it into a per-use fee
- Both sides — you may need both the requesting and responding roles, not just one
- Coverage and SLA — guaranteed latency, uptime and EU data residency affect pricing
- Integration effort — one REST API vs maintaining direct scheme connectivity
The cost of not doing it
Weigh provider fees against the cost of APP fraud and misdirected payments VoP prevents — a single redirected supplier payment often dwarfs a year of per-check fees.
FAQ
For the payer, yes — the Instant Payments Regulation requires the check to be free of charge. The cost is borne by the banks, PSPs and businesses that provide or consume the service.
The payment service providers. They either build connectivity to the EPC VoP scheme or pay for a managed API, and bear the per-check cost. They cannot pass a VoP fee to the payer.
It varies by provider and volume. Managed VoP APIs are typically priced per verification, with lower unit prices at higher volumes; building scheme connectivity in-house instead carries a large fixed cost.
For most providers, buying a managed API is cheaper and faster than building and certifying EPC scheme connectivity in-house, which requires significant engineering, compliance and ongoing maintenance.
Get Verification of Payee pricing
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