Confirmation of Payee five years on

Finextra

08-07-2025

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Five years ago, the UK's financial landscape underwent a profound transformation with the introduction of Confirmation of Payee (CoP) . The service was launched by Pay.UK in 2020 to reduce the number of misdirected payments by verifying the account details of the intended recipient before a payment is made. Having since also demonstrated its effectiveness in mitigating and reducing certain types of fraud, the service has now become a customary part of the payment journey for both payment service providers and end users.
I've had the privilege of working as part of the team that took CoP from a blueprint in 2018 to a service that today covers 99% of organisations initiating Faster Payments in the UK, and completes more than 2.1million checks every day.
Most importantly, however, are the impressive results brought about by the service in this time. The Credit Payment Recovery sent claim percentage rate for the 'incorrect account' category (as a proportion of Faster Payment sent transactions) is a sound indicator of a reduction in misdirected payments. Since the launch of CoP , we have seen a 59% reduction in this category and a 20-40% reduction in financial losses to end users for some types of fraud, according to the UK Finance Annual Fraud Report 2025.
Confirmation of Payee's international influence
Owed to its measurable impact and innovative nature (a full name matching capability that provides a more robust and user-friendly solution than earlier binary (yes/no) and attribute-based checks), Confirmation of Payee has come to be seen as a 'poster child' of payment verification initiatives around the world.
We have, and continue to, actively engage with our international counterparts, sharing the insights and learnings from our own journey, to help inform the development of these initiatives and strengthen payment security. These collaborative efforts have delved into critical aspects of implementation, including legal and liability frameworks, directory implementation, testing methodologies, customer communications, and the development of standardised matching logic and user experience.
The rollout of New Zealand's GetVerified in 2024, Australia's Confirmation of Payee in July 2025, and Europe's Verification of Payee in October 2025, all serve as testament to both Confirmation of Payee's influence in effectively reducing misdirected payments and mitigating financial crime, and a shared understanding of the critical need for enhanced payment security on a global scale.
The future of payment verification
As we reflect on CoP's remarkable journey five years on, the question naturally arises: what's next?
As well as maintaining the vital service that CoP provides, it is also crucial to continually assess the evolving financial landscape and progress the service as new challenges and opportunities emerge. We are currently exploring other use cases of the service and whether there are other organisations, further to payment service providers, that could benefit from employing CoP, such as Bacs Approved Bureau and Bacs Approved Software Solution providers.
We are also looking at how we can implement other fraud prevention and detection tools that can check additional data points that can support payment service providers in identifying potential fraudulent accounts prior to a payment being processed.
The most ambitious vision is a future where CoP transcends national borders. The ultimate goal is a truly global service that can be applied to cross-border payments, rather than relying on a multitude of similar, yet separate, services across different countries.
This would not only enhance global financial integrity but also streamline cross-border commerce, benefiting governments, businesses and individuals. To this end, we will continue to monitor the development of similar initiatives around the world and, in parallel, explore how we can refine our own model to ensure interoperability for cross-border payments.
CoP has already proven to be a powerful tool in the fight against financial fraud and payment errors. Its journey from a domestic initiative to an international standard is a testament to its efficacy and the collaboration of the global financial community.
As we look ahead, we will continue to leverage the success of CoP, both in the UK and in a global context, to build a more secure, efficient, and borderless payment ecosystem for everyone, everywhere.