Verification of Payee (VoP) is a beneficiary banking details checking service. It is designed to carry out verification on beneficiary name and IBAN (International Bank Account Number) prior to approving and executing a payment.
The Verification of Payee (VoP) service will be introduced in October 2025 to help reduce fraud and to give the payer greater confidence when making SEPA payments. This applies for SEPA and SEPA Instant Payment in the SEPA zone.
To ensure a smooth experience, we advise you to make the following preparations:
It is important to note that VoP is a pre-payment check. Once the name has been checked, you have the option to act on the VoP response despite any status and you will be given the option to approve or amend the payment.
When checking payment details, it’s important to contact the person or business using a phone number you trust. Never use a phone number provided in an email or text message, as these can be faked by criminals to deceive you.
Never be pressurised into proceeding with a payment when the details don’t match, or if the account cannot be checked.
The Verification of Payee (VoP) service, a European initiative aimed at protecting users from fraud, will be introduced in October 2025 for SEPA payments, including SEPA Instant Payments. In this webinar, you will get insights on how to prepare for a smoother transition.
Answers provided below are relevant after Go-Live on 5th October.
Verification of Payee (VoP), to be introduced in October 2025, 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 or company they are not. It will also help avoid simple mistakes like misspelled account details when you set up a new payment. Finally, the VoP service is mandated by the EU Instant Payment Regulation, so all banks in the SEPA area will need to comply with it and offer the service to their end-customers.
Verification of Payee, when introduced, will be available both in SEB online banking tool, Business Arena, as well as in any file payments sent through File Handling Service (FHS), Global Corporate Access (GCA), Global Corporate Access over EBICS (GCAoE) or CAoS (Corporate Access over Swift).
Payments you make:
When you make a SEPA or SEPA Instant payment, a VoP 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 VoP 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.
Payments made to you:
The account details you provide to the person or business who is trying to pay you will be VoP checked against the actual name held on your account. If you are using ISO 20022 camt.053 or camt.054 reporting, you can see the names used in payments to you by looking at incoming payments and the Creditor Name tag.
The Payment Service Provider (usually the bank) of the person or business you are paying will decide, if the name and account details sent to them for the VoP check are a match. The bank account servicing bank 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 does not exactly match what you have provided. You will be provided with a suggested name, so please check if the suggested name provided is correct and store the correct name for the possible later use. 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, we advise you to contact the person or business you are trying to pay, to obtain the correct account name and account number before making any payments. 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 means that the service is unavailable at the time of checking or there is another possible reason to request failure, and we will advise you to try later. If the situation will continue despite many retrials, we advise you to contact the person or business you are trying to pay, to clear with their bank what might be the reason for this response.
Payment made to you:
If you have a SEB EUR account in Finland, Germany or Luxembourg, SEB’sVoP responses will be sent to the one paying to your account.
Payments you make:
If you are a payer and have a SEB EUR account in Finland, Germany or Luxembourg you will be able to verify the beneficiary before proceeding with your SEPA payment. If the beneficiary has their account within the EUR-zone, you can expect to receive an answer. If you are sending a SEPA payment to a non-EUR country, you will receive a response if the beneficiary bank is VoP reachable.
If you are paying a person, please use their first name and last name. If you are paying a business, please use the legal or business 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.
When you are initiating single payments, in the online channels or in files signed at SEB, it is mandatory to perform the VoP check. You can always proceed with the payment approval, independent of the VoP-result. If you are a corporate customer sending payment transactions in the host-to-host file solutions, you will initially be opted-out from the VoP-service. If you would like to opt-in to VoP in the host-to-host flow, please contact SEB Client Services.
Our dedicated team of experts is here to guide you through the complexities of local market dynamics, finding flexible solutions to streamline your day-to-day operations. Together with you, we will support your expansion across borders and ensure that your global treasury needs are met.