Confirmation of Payee

Confirmation of Payee helps users verify that they are sending payments to the right account holder. You may recognise this feature from your own personal banking. Confirmation of Payee can be used to: 

• check the account details of a new recipient 
• check before updating existing recipient details 
• validate current payment data (a one-off exercise) 

The service is mostly used when setting up or amending a Bacs payment.

Currently, you can do a Confirmation of Payee check through the user interface. Users manually input four fields: 

• Type of account (personal or business) 
• Name of the account holder 
• Sort code 
• Account number 

Confirmation of Payee works by performing a real time check with the bank of the account holder, verifying that the account name and details provided are correct and the account exists.  

Staff members can the investigate any discrepancies before payment is made. This can stop you sending a payment to the wrong person or organisation. This can help stop fraud and save time.  

Confirmation of Payee is a stand alone feature, which means you can use it even if you do not make payments through ScotPayments.

Integrating Confirmation of Payee into partner’s tools and systems through API and bulk check are currently on our roadmap. For more information, get in touch.