Confirmation of Payee: what the name check means for your business

If you pay suppliers by bank transfer, you have almost certainly seen a message asking whether the name you typed matches the account. That is Confirmation of Payee, and it now sits in front of most business payments in the UK. Most owners click through it without thinking. This post explains what the check does, what it does not do, and how to set your own business up so customers who pay you never hit a confusing warning.

What Confirmation of Payee actually is

Pay.UK, which owns the service and sets its rules, describes Confirmation of Payee as an account name checking service for UK domestic payments. When you set up a payment, your bank checks the name, sort code and account number you entered against the account. Pay.UK says it is now a "hygiene factor", meaning customers expect to see a check before they pay.

On scale, Pay.UK says over 320 organisations use the service, carrying out about 2.1 million checks a day. Following the Payment Systems Regulator's 2022 mandate, with a deadline of October 2024, it covers over 99% of organisations sending Faster Payments in the UK. In practice, nearly every bank, building society and payment app you deal with will run the check.

The four answers you can get

Pay.UK sets out four outcomes:

• Yes: the name matches and you can carry on.
• Close match: the name is similar. Your bank shows you the actual account holder name so you can correct your details or check with the recipient.
• No, the name is wrong: the details do not match. You are told to contact the person or organisation you are paying.
• Unavailable: the check could not be completed, for example because of a timeout, because the recipient has opted out, or because the account does not exist.

Pay.UK's guidance is straightforward. Proceed on a yes. On a close match, check the name shown and either correct the details or confirm with the recipient. On a wrong name, contact the intended recipient before you pay.

Which name should you type for a business?

For a business account, Pay.UK says the payer needs the registered business name or a trading name registered to the account. For joint personal accounts, one of the registered names is enough. NatWest's business guidance adds a practical point for suppliers: confirm the exact company name, especially if the supplier belongs to a larger group with several brands.

The common cause of a close match is a mismatch between the name on the invoice and the name on the bank account. Imagine a shop trading as "Corner Cafe" whose account is held by "CC Hospitality Ltd" (a made-up example). Nobody has done anything wrong, but the payer sees a warning and may hesitate or abandon the payment.

What to do this week as the person being paid

NatWest advises that the company name on your invoices should match the name on your business account, and that sole traders or firms trading under several brands should tell their bank about those trading names so the check can verify them. A short checklist:

• Look at the account name on your business bank statement.
• Compare it with the name printed on your invoices, website and quotes.
• If you trade under a different name, ask your bank whether that trading name is registered to the account.
• Put the exact account name next to your sort code and account number on every invoice.
• If you use online ordering or invoicing software, check the payment details it prints are the same ones.

This is a small job, but it removes a real source of friction. A customer who sees a "name does not match" warning when paying you is more likely to phone, delay or pay by another route.

What to do as the person paying

Treat a close match or a wrong name as a prompt to verify, not an obstacle to click past. NatWest's advice is not to force the payment through: check the correct name and account details with the payee, using a phone number you already trust rather than one printed on the invoice you are querying. If the recipient's bank cannot be checked, NatWest suggests that a small test payment, confirmed as received, is a sensible precaution before sending the full amount.

Be most careful when a supplier tells you their bank details have changed. NatWest flags changes to payment details as a common route for fraud. A confirmed name match is reassuring, but it only tells you the name and account number agree with the bank's records. It does not prove the person asking for the money is who they say they are. Pay.UK is explicit that Confirmation of Payee does not guarantee fraud detection or reimbursement if you are defrauded, and that it is not a complete fraud solution.

Where the check does and does not apply

According to Pay.UK, the service covers domestic UK payments over CHAPS, Faster Payments and Bacs. It checks new payees and changes to existing payment details, but payments to existing recipients and standing orders may not be checked, although individual banks may check them anyway. That matters if you pay the same supplier every month: the check may have happened once, long ago, and may not catch a fraudster who has since taken over the relationship by email.

Pay.UK also says a review is under way to confirm the service still targets the harms it was designed for, and that it is exploring extending it to Bacs Approved Bureaux and Bacs Approved Software providers, plus developing other fraud tools that check additional data points. If you run payroll or supplier batches through software, it is worth asking your provider how it handles name checks as these plans develop.

If you build or run a website that takes payment details

If your site shows bank details for manual transfers, for example for deposits or invoices, keep the account name exactly as the bank holds it, and keep it consistent across your site, emails and PDFs. If you would rather not take bank transfers by hand at all, card or pay-by-link options remove the name-matching step entirely, and you can read more about ecommerce options on our site.

The short version

• Confirmation of Payee compares the name you type with the account holder's name.
• A close match or wrong name means stop and verify with the payee.
• Make your invoice name match your bank account name, and register trading names with your bank.
• A match is helpful but is not proof of honesty, and changed bank details deserve a phone call.
• Existing payees and standing orders may not be rechecked.

Rules and coverage change, so check Pay.UK's pages or speak to your bank for the current position before you rely on any of the above.