The Verification Of Payee Rulebook Simplified

Written by Jacob Davies

Verification Of Payee (VOP) is a real time service that checks whether the name on a payment matches the actual account holder before money is transferred. It prevents both innocent mistakes and sophisticated fraud before they happen.

When a customer makes a payment, their bank instantly queries the recipient’s bank to verify the name matches. The results are either Match, No Match, Close Match, or Cannot Verify, depending on the IBAN check. This appears immediately, allowing customers to catch errors or fraud attempts before confirming the payment.

This isn’t optional anymore. VOP is rapidly becoming essential payment infrastructure across Europe, driven by the regulatory deadline on October 9th, customer protection requirements, and the escalating cost of authorised push payment fraud.

The numbers are compelling. Authorised push payment fraud cost UK banks £460 million in 2023 alone , while payment errors and misdirected funds create additional operational costs and customer friction. Early VOP implementations show 60-80% reduction in successful fraud attempts and significant decreases in payment errors.

To help you navigate VOP, we’ve taken the complex EPC Rulebook and simplified it into an easy and accessible summary. This rulebook includes:

• Foundation: Understand VOP and the key benefits
• Legal Framework: Legal requirements, contractual governance, and registry 
• Technical Implementation: How VOP works and technical standards 
• Operational requirements: Standards, compliance and risk requirements
• Governance: Scheme management and change control