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Confirmation of Payee, UK

Confirmation of Payee (CoP) is an account and name checking service designed to automatically carry-out verification of beneficiary details prior to executing a payment. The service, which is mandatory for all banks operating in the UK, has been introduced to help reduce fraud and to give you greater confidence when making payments.

What is CoP?

Confirmation of Payee (CoP) is an account and name checking service designed to automatically carry-out verification of beneficiary details prior to executing a payment. The service, which is mandatory for all banks operating in the UK and applies to all domestic payment types, has been introduced to help reduce fraud and to give you greater confidence when making payments.

How does it work?

Payments made to you

It is important you give whoever is making a payment into your account, your business or trading name that’s registered on your account. If your account name changes then don’t forget to let people know.

Payments you make

When you set up a new UK domestic payment or amend an existing beneficiary, a CoP check will be made against the name on the account you want to pay by the beneficiary’s bank and you will be notified immediately as to whether the payment details you have entered are a match, a close match or no match. You will then be able to take appropriate action.

It is important to note that CoP is a pre-payment check. Once the name has been checked you still have to instruct the payment to be made as a final step.

The CoP check will generate one of three responses:

  1. “Perfect match” – you will receive confirmation that all the details match.
  2. “Close match” – this means that the name on the account or the account type (Personal or Business) does not exactly match what you have provided. You will be provided with a suggested name and/or account type, so please check if the suggested name provided is correct. If it doesn’t look right, or you’re not sure, contact the person or business you are trying to pay to check their details.
  3. "No match" – we will let you know that it is not a match and advise you to contact the person or business you are trying to pay, in order to obtain the correct account name, sort code, account number and account type (Business account or Personal account) before making any payments. We will also inform if Confirmation of Payee service is unavailable at the time of checking, and advise you to try later. 

When checking payment details, it’s important to contact the person or business on a phone number you trust. Never call a phone number from an email or text message exchange, which can be faked by the criminal to trick you into believing it’s genuine.

Never be pressurised into continuing with a payment when the details don’t match or where the account cannot be checked.

Frequently asked questions about Confirmation of Payee, UK

Contact SEB in the UK

Email: info@seb.co.uk
Phone: +44 20 72 46 40 00

Visiting address

One Carter Lane
London EC4V 5AN

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ) (“SEB AB”), is authorised and regulated by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, Finansinspektionen. SEB AB currently exercises its right to carry on regulated activities in the UK under a third country branch authorisation. As such, it is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority. Subject to regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority and limited regulation by the Prudential Regulation Authority. Details about the extent of SEB AB’s regulation by the Prudential Regulation Authority are available from us on request.

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