Preparing for Verification of Payee – 5 practical tips for corporates

Verification of Payee (VoP) is part of the EU Instant Payments Regulation and aims at enhancing payment security and protecting against fraud. We asked Harri Rantanen, Business Developer at SEB and Emmie Silén, Product Manager at SEB, to share their best tips for corporations to prepare for the changes in payment routines that VoP brings.

The Verification of Payee (VoP) is a regulatory requirement concerning the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) – and any transactions made within SEPA, including Instant Payments. Put simply, VoP states there should be systems in place to verify that the payee’s name matches the account holder’s name in the receiving bank. In case of a mismatch, the transaction will be stopped, to wait for final approval or correction.

From 9 October 2025, this new security routine becomes mandatory for all payment service providers in the European Economic Area. Getting it in place will, however, require an effort from not only banks, but also from Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) providers and corporates.

So, how should a corporation prepare for the VoP regulation? Harri Rantanen and Emmie Silén give five practical tips.

1. For incoming payments - ensure that your invoices and your bank have the correct company name

To avoid payment failures or delays, corporates must make sure that the name on their invoices matches the name registered with the bank. Even minor differences can cause delays and result in payments not coming through.

“Corporates need to ensure that the name on their invoices is correct and fully matches the one in the official company registration. In addition, they need to contact their banks and verify that these have the correct name registered”, says Emmie Silén.  

2. For outgoing payments: Remain with the default opt-out setting, until everything is up and running

As already mentioned, VoP becomes mandatory for payment service providers in October, but corporates can choose to opt-out until further notice. Due to technical uncertainties, the SEB duo recommends exactly that, for outgoing payment files. At SEB, opt out will in fact be the default setting, clients have the opportunity to opt in afterwards.

“Much uncertainty remains. For example, different banks might have different details when sending information on bouncing payments  – and it is unclear how the ERP providers are expected to manage this . Therefore, it is also unclear how faulty payments will be reported and indicated for the actual corporate end-users”, says Harri Rantanen.

3. Use pre-validation tools for your new suppliers

Having chosen to opt-out for outgoing payments, there may still be situations where the VoP process is valid. One such scenario is when you are making the first payment to a new supplier.

“In these cases, we recommend making a separate payment and using our Business Arena VoP pre-validation tool to verify that there’s a name match before sending the payment. This is an instant response tool for checking individual payments, so there will be no need to change the overall settings”, says Emmie Silén.

4. Prepare your systems for future opt in and response handling

When planning for your eventual opt in, you need to make sure that your ERP or middleware systems can handle VoP response messages and flag mismatches appropriately.

“To be able to guarantee that payments reach the recipients, you need to be in dialogue with your payment system vendors and verify that these can report payment delays or any other issues in a suitable manner”, says Harri Rantanen.

5. Beware of fraudsters

The upcoming changes in the payment routines will mean plenty of contact between suppliers and customers, to make sure all data is correct. Likely, fraudsters will use this opportunity to try and deceive corporates.  

“In times of deepfake, this risk becomes even more prominent. It is therefore important to double-check all proposed changes from external parties, in order to make informed decisions”, says Harri Rantanen.