Verification of Payee (VoP) is a free, mandatory name check for euro transfers within the SEPA zone. Before a payment is authorised, the payer’s bank asks the payee’s bank whether the name entered matches the IBAN. Since October 2025, every euro-area bank must offer it. VoP has cut misdirected payments, but it only checks the name. It doesn’t confirm that your supplier actually asked for its bank details to change.
One year after launch, VoP is running at scale across Europe. For finance teams paying suppliers, though, the first year has also shown where it falls short: payments outside SEPA, bulk payment files, and fraud that starts long before the payment, when supplier records are created or changed. This guide covers the first-year results, what each VoP result means for your payment process, and how to close the gaps.
Key takeaways
- VoP checks whether the payee’s name matches the IBAN at the receiving bank, before a SEPA payment in euros is authorised.
- It became mandatory for euro-area banks on 9 October 2025, under the Instant Payments Regulation (EU) 2024/886.
- In Q2 2026, VoP handled around 2.2 billion checks. About one in three didn’t return a clean match (EPC data via Qombo).
- VoP doesn’t confirm that a supplier requested a bank detail change, that a company is legitimate, or that the bank details in your supplier records are correct.
- It doesn’t cover payments outside SEPA or in other currencies, and businesses can opt out of it for bulk payment files.
- VoP expands to banks in EU countries outside the euro area on 9 July 2027 (for euro transfers), and the EU Payment Services Regulation (PSR) will extend name checks to all credit transfers once adopted.
- For UK businesses, VoP is the euro equivalent of Confirmation of Payee. Neither replaces independent supplier verification.
What is Verification of Payee?
Verification of Payee is a European anti-fraud service required by the Instant Payments Regulation (EU) 2024/886, which amended the SEPA Regulation. It requires banks and other payment service providers (PSPs) in the euro area to check the payee’s name against the IBAN before a SEPA credit transfer or SEPA Instant payment is authorised.
The service must be free and available on every channel the bank offers: online, mobile, telephone and in branch. It applies to payments to both individuals and businesses.
VoP works much like the UK’s Confirmation of Payee (CoP). The goal is to reduce misdirected payments and authorised push payment (APP) fraud, where the victim is tricked into authorising a payment to an account controlled by a fraudster. Because instant payments settle in seconds and are hard to recover, checking before the money leaves is essential. Read more about how Confirmation of Payee helps fight APP scams.
The European Payments Council (EPC) runs the VoP scheme rulebook, which banks join to exchange VoP requests. The scheme launched on 5 October 2025, ahead of the legal deadline of 9 October 2025.
How does the VoP process work?
VoP takes place before the payment is authorised and involves four parties: the payer, the payer’s bank, the payee’s bank and the payee.
- The payer enters the payee’s IBAN and name.
- The payer’s bank sends a VoP request to the payee’s bank.
- The payee’s bank checks the name against its records.
- The payer’s bank shows the result to the payer, usually in under a second.
- The payer decides to go ahead, correct the details or cancel the payment.
The payee’s bank can return four types of result:
- Match: the name matches the account holder.
- Close match: the name is similar (for example, a typo or abbreviation). The bank returns the account holder’s actual name.
- No match: the name doesn’t match the account holder.
- Verification not possible: the check couldn’t be completed, for example because the account is closed, the data is missing or the account is out of scope.
If you go ahead after a “no match” or “close match” warning, you generally carry the risk if the payment turns out to be misdirected.
Learn more about VoP in our fraud flash series:
VoP one year on: the results
VoP is operating at scale. According to EPC data presented in August 2026 (reported by Qombo):
- Around 2.2 billion VoP requests were processed in Q2 2026, which works out to more than 8 billion a year.
- 95% of responses arrived in under a second.
- More than 2,700 PSPs had joined the scheme within a month of launch (EPC).
The breakdown of results is the most useful figure for finance teams:
In other words, roughly one payment in three doesn’t return a clean match. Many of these are simply typos or trading names that differ from legal names. But every non-match needs a decision, and without a clear process, payments get delayed, or warnings get ignored.
What VoP results mean in your payment process
To avoid repeated warnings, make sure the names in your supplier records match the legal account holder names. VoP results are only as useful as your supplier master data.
Is Verification of Payee enough to stop fraud?
No. VoP is an important safeguard, but it was designed to catch misdirected payments, not the full range of supplier fraud that targets companies.
At Trustpair, we see vendor fraud slipping through these gaps. Typical scenarios include:
- A hacked supplier inbox. Fraudsters take over a real supplier’s email account and send a request to change bank details, sometimes with a plausible reason such as a new bank or a group restructuring. If the fraudster opens the new account in a name close to the supplier’s, VoP may even return a “close match.” Learn more about business email compromise.
- A fake supplier with a real account. Criminals create a company, open a genuine bank account in its name and send invoices for goods or services never delivered. VoP returns a “match” because the name and account really do correspond. Between 2013 and 2015, a fraudster used a similar scheme, posing as a real hardware supplier, to obtain over $100 million from Facebook and Google. Read more about invoice fraud.
- Changes in supplier records. Fraudsters (or insiders) change bank details in the supplier master file directly, long before any payment run. VoP only steps in at the moment of payment, if at all.
If a fraud has already happened, follow our playbook for responding to an impersonation scam.
Can businesses opt out of VoP for bulk payments?
Yes. Under the Instant Payments Regulation, business users that submit several payments as a single batch can choose not to use VoP for those batches. They can opt back in at any time.
This matters for accounts payable teams, which typically pay suppliers in bulk payment runs. If your company has opted out, or your bank’s file channel handles VoP differently, your payment runs may go out without any name check. Ask your bank how VoP applies to your payment files, and make sure bank details are verified before they reach the payment run.
VoP, Confirmation of Payee and UK businesses
VoP doesn’t apply to UK banks. The UK has its own name-checking service, Confirmation of Payee, run by Pay.UK. UK businesses will meet VoP when they pay suppliers in euros from EU bank accounts, or receive euro payments from EU customers.
For UK companies with European operations, this means three things:
- Two schemes, similar results: CoP for sterling payments within the UK, VoP for euro payments within SEPA. Keep supplier names consistent across both.
- Gaps between them: payments in other currencies, or to countries outside both schemes, have no name check at all.
- The same limits: neither scheme confirms that a bank detail change is genuine or that a supplier is legitimate.
If your suppliers receive payments by bank transfer, your customers will also see your company name checked. Make sure the legal name on your accounts matches the name on your invoices to avoid “close match” or “no match” warnings. See how to choose a Confirmation of Payee tool.
What’s next for VoP?
- 9 July 2027: banks in EU countries that don’t use the euro (Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Sweden and Czechia) must offer VoP for euro transfers. This doesn’t make VoP mandatory for payments in their local currencies.
- 2027: the EPC is working on “VoP 2.0,” which would give clearer reasons when a check can’t be completed.
- H2 2028: FRIDA, the EPC’s Fraud Information Distribution Arrangement, is expected to start. It will let banks share information on accounts suspected of fraud.
- EU Payment Services Regulation (PSR): the PSR will extend the IBAN–name check to all credit transfers in the EU. The text was agreed in 2026 but still needs formal adoption by the European Parliament and the Council (Legislative Train Schedule). Read our guide to the Payment Services Regulation.
How does Trustpair go further than VoP?
VoP checks a name at the moment of payment. Trustpair verifies suppliers and their bank details across the whole cycle, from onboarding to every change and every payment, in the SEPA zone and beyond.
- At onboarding: Trustpair checks that the supplier is a legitimate company and that the bank account belongs to it, using automated account validation.
- When details change: every change to bank details in your supplier records triggers a new verification, combined with callback verification by Trustpair agents when a conversation is needed.
- Before payment: payment files are checked against verified data before release, including bulk payment runs and payments outside SEPA.
- With an audit trail: every check is documented, so you can show auditors and the board how your payment controls work.
Learn more about Trustpair’s approach to vendor fraud prevention and the supplier account verification process.