Confirmation of Payee (CoP)

Confirmation of Payee (CoP) is a UK account-name-checking service. Before a payment is sent, CoP checks whether the name entered by the payer matches the name registered on the receiving account, and returns a match, close match, or no match. Its purpose is to reduce misdirected payments and to make authorised push payment (APP) fraud harder, where a fraudster tricks someone into paying an account that is not who they claim to be.

How Confirmation of Payee works

When a customer sets up a new payee or makes a payment, the sending bank asks the receiving bank to confirm the account holder's name against the sort code and account number provided. The payer sees one of a few outcomes:

• Match — the name matches the account; the payment can proceed with confidence.
• Close match — the name is similar; the payer is shown the actual account name so they can check and decide.
• No match — the name does not match; the payer is warned to check the details before continuing.

CoP does not block a payment. It gives the payer information so they can make an informed choice, which is why clear presentation of the result matters as much as the check itself.

Why it exists

Account-to-account payments such as Faster Payments are near-instant and, once sent, hard to recover. Before CoP, a payer entering the right account number but the wrong name had no way to catch the error, and fraudsters exploited this by supplying account details that did not belong to the organisation they were impersonating. CoP closes that gap by surfacing a name mismatch at the moment of payment. Its roll-out across UK payment service providers has been driven by the Payment Systems Regulator as part of wider work to tackle APP fraud.

CoP and APP fraud reimbursement

Confirmation of Payee is one layer in the UK's response to APP scams, which also includes mandatory reimbursement rules for victims of APP fraud on Faster Payments and other designated systems. A clear CoP warning that a customer chose to ignore can be relevant to how liability is assessed, which is another reason banks present results prominently.

What it means for lenders and billers

For any organisation receiving payments — including lenders collecting disbursements or repayments — having a correctly registered account name matters, because a mismatch can cause customers to abandon a payment. For organisations making outbound payments, such as loan disbursements, CoP provides assurance that funds are going to the intended recipient before they leave the account.

Why presentation of the result matters

Because Confirmation of Payee informs rather than blocks, the way a result is shown to the payer determines how effective it is. A clear, prominent warning on a “no match” gives the customer a genuine chance to stop and check; a result buried in small print does not. Payment service providers therefore put care into how CoP outcomes are surfaced, because a warning that is easy to miss protects neither the customer nor the firm.

Edge cases and limitations

CoP is not infallible. Joint accounts, business names that differ from trading names, and accounts held under a slightly different name can all produce a “close match” that is entirely legitimate. Equally, a “match” confirms the name on the account, not that the recipient is trustworthy — a fraudster using a correctly named account can still pass the check. CoP is one safeguard among several, most effective when combined with customer education and other fraud controls rather than relied on alone.

What organisations should do

Any organisation that receives payments should ensure the account name it publishes matches the name registered with its bank, so legitimate payers see a reassuring match rather than a warning that causes them to abandon the payment. Organisations making outbound payments benefit from using CoP as a final check before funds leave the account. Treating CoP as part of the overall payment-integrity and fraud-prevention process, rather than a box-ticking step, is what turns the capability into genuine protection.