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:
- “Perfect match” – you will receive confirmation that all the details match.
- “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.
- "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
Confirmation of Payee (CoP) aims to give customers greater confidence when making payments, to ensure that they are paying the correct payee.
SEB is introducing this name checking service to help protect against fraud, i.e. so called “authorised push payment” scams. These are scams where people are tricked into sending money to fraudsters pretending to be people they are not.
It will also help avoid simple mistakes like mis-typing account details when you set up a new payment.
Confirmation of Payee will be available in C&I Online only is NOT available for any file payments sent through File Handling Service (FHS), Global Corporate Access (GCA) or CAoS (Corporate Access over Swift)
Payments you make:
When you set up a new single UK domestic payment or change an existing mandate or regular payment, a CoP UK check will be made with the respective bank against the name of the person or business you want to pay:
- If you are paying a person, please use their first or main name and last name
- If you are paying a business, please use the business name or trading name registered to their account.
- You will need to choose the type of account you are paying i.e. personal or business
You will then receive one of the three possible outcomes based upon the information SEB receives from the beneficiary bank: match, close match, no match. You will be advised to check, if the name doesn’t match fully.
Payments made to you:
The account details you provide to the person or business who is trying to pay you will be CoP UK checked against the actual name held on your account.
The payment provider of the person or business you are paying (usually their bank or building society) will decide, if the name and account details sent to them for the CoP UK check are a match. They will send their response to SEB, and this will be shown to you before executing the payment.
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.
If you receive a no match, first check you have entered the details correctly. If you have, then you should contact the person or business you are trying to pay to confirm the account name, sort code, account number and account type (Business account or Personal account).
If, after checking with the person or business you are trying to pay, they inform you that the details are correct, we recommend that you request they contact their payment provider/bank, to confirm that the details held on their account match those provided to you.
If the payment details still don’t come back as a match when using the service, it could indicate a scam. Fraudsters will attempt to trick you into sending money by posing as an individual or company that you trust, such as your bank or a trusted supplier. To help you avoid this, you should carefully consider whether the payment request is genuine, or you may lose your money. This is especially true where you receive a ‘no match’ response following a CoP UK check.
CoP UK covers payments made by and to all Sterling accounts in the UK that are addressable by sort code and account number. The service is focusing on domestic Faster Payments, CHAPS and BACS.
If you are a paying a person, please use their first name and last name.
If you are paying a business, please use the business name or trading name registered to their account.
You may need to contact the recipient to obtain the correct name held on the account. Make sure that this matches what you expect, based on the person or business you intend to pay.
If a payment provider has not registered for this service, you will get a notification that a CoP UK check is not possible for the payment provider. If this happens, it’s important that you are fully confident the payee details are correct, and the payment request is trustworthy before continuing.
In the event of a complaint, please email compliance@seb.co.uk.
Further information on our Complaints Handling Procedure can be found in SEB London’s Complaints Handling Procedures Summary.
SEB London’s Complaints Handling Procedures Summary (pdf)
Contact SEB in the UK
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.