Verification of Payee

ABOUT

Verification of Payee is a service that allows you to check, before making a bank transfer, that the beneficiary’s name matches the entered IBAN code.

This check can also be performed on the commercial names of companies, considering that some of them have multiple names.

The verification service is offered to the payer by their bank, which sends the entered name and IBAN to the beneficiary's bank to technically execute the verification; the beneficiary's bank checks such data against its records and provides a response to the customer who is making the transfer. The possible responses are:

The name and IBAN fully correspond

There is partial correspondence

No correspondence is found

It is not possible to verify
the beneficiary's data

All of this happens in just a few seconds and at no cost to the customer!

In any case, it’s the customer who decides whether to confirm the payment or not.

For more information, the user and corporate can refer to their own bank.

IS IT ALSO USEFUL FOR COMPANIES?

Companies can:

Carry out individual and bulk verifications on multiple beneficiaries at once;
Temporarily disable the service only for bulk payments, while retaining the ability to reactivate it at any time.

WHY

In a world where digital payments are increasingly fast and widespread, verifying that the recipient of a payment is truly who they claim to be, is crucial. To this effect, Verification of Payee (VoP) was created with the goal to combat fraud and protect users and businesses from scams and mistakes by checking the match between the beneficiary’s name and IBAN before the payment is executed.

KEY ELEMENTS

Enhances security in
financial transactions

Verifies the correct association
between the payee of a payment
and its IBAN code

Helps prevent fraudulent
or mistaken payments;

Increases stability and efficiency
of the financial sector

Provides a clear and immediate
customer experience

WHEN DOES IT BECOME MANDATORY

The new European regulation on Instant Payments (Reg. (EU) 2024/886) makes instant euro payments available to consumers and businesses in the EU and the countries of the European Economic Area (EEA). It allows users to transfer money within a few seconds, at any time of day, not only within the same country but also to another EU Member State.

The two main milestones of 2025 are:

From January 9, 2025, all Payment Service Providers (PSPs) must ensure the reception of instant credit transfers in euros
From October 9, 2025, it will also be mandatory to offer the service for sending instant credit transfers and Verification of Payee, both for instant and traditional credit transfers

In response to regulatory requirements, and ahead of time, CBI pioneered its own Verification of Payee service: CBI Name Check.

Insights:

Affari & Finanza: Bonifici, nel mirino i beneficiari (380 KB)

CBI Name Check

CBI Name Check is a Verification of Payee service that allows you to verify in real time the correct association between the name of the beneficiary of a payment and the associated IBAN code.

Check IBAN

Discover the benefits of data monetization with Check IBAN

CBI Safe Trade

CBI has been admitted to the Regulatory Sandbox established by the MEF and managed in coordination with the Bank of Italy, Consob and MEF, with the Invoice Control Database Service.