Confirmation of Payee is a name-checking service that helps make sure your payments are sent to the right account, giving you greater protection against fraud. It reduces the risk of misdirected or accidental mis-keyed payments sent via CHAPS, Faster Payments or Standing Order payments made to, or from, your Unity account.

How does the name checking service work?

Enter payment details

When making a payment to a new beneficiary, adding a new beneficiary, or amending existing beneficiary details, a Confirmation of Payee check will be carried out.

You will need to enter the payee’s information for checking. This includes:

• The account name of the person or business you are trying to pay
• The sort code
• The account number
• The account type (personal or business)
• Reference – some account types require a reference to identify who the account belongs to. Please provide this detail, if requested.

Details are checked

The provided payee details will then be checked with the relevant bank before the payment can be made.

Review the match

Once the details have been checked, you will then be shown a Confirmation of Payee check response, which confirms if the details provided match the right account. The 4 main responses are:

• Match: The details entered correctly match the account you are trying to pay
• Close Match: The name entered doesn’t quite match the name on the account. You should contact the person or business you are trying to pay to confirm the correct details.
• Not a Match: The details entered do not match the account. You should contact the person or business you are trying to pay to confirm the correct details.
• Unavailable/Unable to check: This response may show if an account holder’s bank does not support the Confirmation of Payee scheme or if there is a system issue. You should contact the person or business you are trying to pay.

Based on the response, you can make a more informed decision as to whether or not to proceed with the payment.

Once verified, your beneficiaries will have a green tick next to their name in the ‘CoP’ column on Online Banking.

How do I enrol, or opt out, of Confirmation of Payee?

You don’t need to do anything to enrol; you will be automatically enrolled onto this service if you hold an account with us.

For information about opting out of Confirmation of Payee, please read our FAQs.

Useful tips with making or requesting payments

• Enter the exact account name

This should be entered as it appears on the bank statement or invoice you’re paying. Don’t use nicknames, initials, or shortened versions of names.

If you trade under one name, but are registered under another, make sure you give your payer the name shown on your bank account.

• Look out for ‘close match’ responses

Entering the full account name should result in a full match. However, if your organisation name does not fit the bank’s character limit, it may result in a close match response.

• Provide your payment instructions

When you are requesting payments from customers or other organisations, clearly state your Unity account name, sort code, account number and any other payment instructions on invoices or payment requests.

• Confirm the account details

Confirm that the payment request is genuine and check the account details with the recipient beforehand to make sure that your payment reaches the intended recipient safely.

When making a payment, if the account name doesn’t match, we’ll let you know. You will still be able to make the payment however we might not be able to recover the money if it goes to the wrong account.

Where can I go for more information?

For more information on Confirmation of Payee, please read our Frequently Asked Questions or visit the UK Finance and Pay.UK websites.

To help keep your business safe from fraud, explore our online fraud guide.