What is Verification of Payee?
A real-time check that confirms the payee's name belongs to the IBAN before a SEPA payment is sent - so money reaches the right person, not a fraudster or a typo.
The name behind the IBAN, confirmed before you pay
Verification of Payee (VoP) - also known as Confirmation of Payee or beneficiary verification - is a service that checks whether the name entered for a payment actually belongs to the IBAN the money is going to.
Before the transfer is authorised, the payer's bank asks the payee's bank a simple question: "does this name match this account?". The answer comes back in under a second, so the payer can continue with confidence, fix a typo, or stop.
It is the single most effective defence against misdirected payments and authorised push payment (APP) fraud - and, under the EU Instant Payments Regulation, it must be offered free of charge on euro credit transfers.
VoP is not KYC verification. KYC (Know Your Customer) checks who your customer is when you open an account; VoP checks who the payee is at the moment of each payment. The two are complementary, and the difference is set out below.
Verification of Payee in 4 steps
VoP plugs into the existing payment flow through the EPC scheme and standardised APIs - nothing changes in how customers pay.
The payer enters the details
Name and IBAN are typed in or pulled from an invoice, exactly as in a normal transfer.
The payee's bank is asked
A secure request goes to the beneficiary's PSP through the VoP scheme to compare the name against the account.
A result in under a second
Match, close match, no match, or not possible - returned in real time, before authorisation.
The payer decides, informed
With a clear answer on screen, the payer confirms, corrects the name, or stops the payment.
Four clear answers, every time
VoP results are standardised across Europe, so the payer always gets an unambiguous signal.
Match
The name matches the IBAN. Safe to send with confidence.
Close match
Almost right - the verified name is suggested so the payer can confirm or correct it.
No match
The name does not belong to this IBAN. A strong signal to stop and double-check.
Not possible
The payee's bank can't verify right now. The payer decides whether to proceed.
Verification of Payee vs KYC verification
Same word - verification - but two different questions, asked at two different moments.
| What you compare | KYC verification | Verification of Payee |
|---|---|---|
| The question it answers | Who is this customer? | Is this payee the holder of this IBAN? |
| When it runs | At onboarding, then on periodic review | Before every SEPA credit transfer |
| Who it covers | Your own customer | The person or company being paid |
| What it uses | ID documents, biometrics, databases, sanctions lists | The payee name and IBAN, checked with the payee's bank |
| Typical output | Verified, referred or rejected, plus a risk rating | Match, close match, no match or not possible |
| Legal driver in the EU | EU anti-money-laundering rules | Instant Payments Regulation (EU) 2024/886 and the EPC VoP scheme |
| What it stops | Fake or unverified customers opening accounts | Misdirected payments and APP fraud on a real payment |
One check, value for everyone in the payment
The same mechanism protects every party - only the perspective changes.
Banks & PSPs
Meet the Instant Payments Regulation, join the EPC VoP scheme, and offer verification to account holders through clean APIs.
Businesses & treasuries
Validate supplier and payroll IBANs before paying, cutting the risk of invoice-redirection fraud.
Payers & customers
A clear answer before sending money - reassurance that the transfer is going where it should.
Compliance & KYC teams
VoP adds a payment-time control next to your KYC verification: the same customer who passed onboarding is still checked against the account they are paying.
Developers & product teams
One real-time API returns a standardised outcome, so you can branch on match, close match, no match or not possible without building scheme messaging.
Accounts payable & payroll
Check a whole supplier or salary file before release, and hold back only the records that come back as close match or no match.
Verification of Payee, in plain terms
Short answers, no jargon.
It is the same idea: checking that the payee name matches the account before a payment. "Confirmation of Payee" is the term used in the UK; "Verification of Payee" is the European scheme governed by the European Payments Council (EPC).
No. VoP is built for instant payments and returns a result in well under a second, before the payer authorises the transfer. The payment experience stays fast.
When the name is almost right - a missing middle name, a legal vs trading name - the service can return the verified name as a suggestion, so the payer confirms or corrects without guessing.
No. VoP is informative: it gives a clear answer, but the decision to send, fix, or stop stays with the payer. That is exactly why it is so effective against social-engineering scams.
The service only compares the name against the account and returns a match result - it does not expose the full account-holder details. Data is processed within the EU and in line with GDPR.
Under the Instant Payments Regulation, euro-area PSPs have been required to offer VoP since 9 October 2025. PSPs in non-euro EU countries must comply from 9 July 2027. The check must be free of charge for the payer.
Yes. VoP is delivered through a real-time API: you send the payee name and IBAN and receive a standardised match, close-match, no-match or not-possible outcome in well under a second. RoxPay offers a single API covering both the requesting and responding sides.
No. KYC verification confirms who your customer is when the account is opened or reviewed - documents, biometrics, database and sanctions checks. Verification of Payee confirms that the payee name matches the IBAN before a specific payment is sent. KYC is about onboarding; VoP is about the payment. You need both, and one does not replace the other.
VoP stands for Verification of Payee. It is the EU name-to-IBAN check defined by the European Payments Council (EPC) VoP scheme and required by the Instant Payments Regulation. In the UK the same idea is called Confirmation of Payee (CoP).
The EPC VoP scheme is the rulebook published by the European Payments Council that says how banks exchange the check: the message formats, the four match outcomes and the response times. The Instant Payments Regulation makes VoP mandatory; the EPC scheme makes it interoperable between PSPs. The scheme went live on 5 October 2025, a few days before the 9 October 2025 legal deadline for euro-area PSPs.
Both. Under the Instant Payments Regulation, the free VoP check must be offered on euro credit transfers, which includes standard SEPA credit transfers as well as SEPA Instant. The check has to work in real time so it fits the instant-payment experience.
Payment service providers that offer euro credit transfers in the EU: banks, payment institutions, e-money institutions and neobanks. They must support both roles - asking the payee's bank (requesting PSP) and answering requests about their own account holders (responding PSP). Businesses are not legally required to offer VoP, but they can use it to check supplier, payroll and treasury IBANs before paying.
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Add Verification of Payee to your payment flow
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