VoP will be a Major Step in the Fight Against Payment Fraud in Europe
🗓️ What’s Changing?
Starting October 9, 2025, Verification of Payee (VoP) will become mandatory in both the euro-area SEPA zone and the UK, representing a coordinated effort to combat rising fraud risks in digital payments.
In the European Union, under the EU Instant Payments Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2024/886), VoP will become mandatory for All euro-area PSPs offering SEPA Credit Transfers (standard and instant). This enforcement will be effective October 9, 2025, the same date as in the UK.
PSPs outside the euro area but within the SEPA zone (e.g. in countries using other currencies) must implement VoP by July 9, 2027.
With UK enforcement, VoP create a pan-European fraud prevention standard, improving cross-border payment safety.
🔍 What is Verification of Payee?
Verification of Payee (VoP) checks whether the name entered during a payment instruction matches the name registered on the receiving bank account.
When initiating a payment, users are informed if the provided name and the account details align:
- ✅ Match – Proceed with confidence.
- ⚠️ Close Match – Check with the payee; some differences exist.
- ❌ No Match – The name does not match; stop and investigate.
To support SEPA Instant Credit Transfers (SCT INST), the VoP implementation framework requests the recipient bank or receiving PSP answers in real time or near-real time (under 2-3 seconds).
This simple step drastically reduces the risk of sending money to fraudsters or the wrong person by mistake.
🚨 Why It’s Needed: The Rise of APP Fraud
Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud occurs when victims are tricked into voluntarily sending money to fraudsters, often under false pretences — such as fake invoices, romance scams, or impersonation of trusted entities. In the UK alone, APP fraud losses exceeded £450 million in 2023. In France, these frauds were valued € 351 million in 2024 growing 12.5% from 2023 says Banque de France OSMP.
🛡️ How VoP Will Help Prevent Fraud
✅ 1. Stops Fraud at the Source
By alerting users to mismatches in account names before payments are made, VoP prevents funds from being sent to criminal accounts.
🔄 2. Reduces Mistaken Payments
Typos, miscommunications, and incorrect bank details are common. VoP catches these errors early, reducing operational losses and disputes.
👮 3. Protects Against Invoice Redirection and Impersonation
VoP thwarts scams where fraudsters impersonate suppliers or service providers by supplying fake bank details.
📊 4. Builds Customer Trust in Digital Payments
By introducing visible security checks, VoP improves consumer and business confidence in real-time payments, including Faster Payments and SEPA Instant Payments.
🚀 Strategic Implications for Heptalytics
Of course, VoP adds a preventive layer at the front end of the payment process, improving avoerall data integrity. This means not only fewer false positives in Heptalytics’ fraud detection model, but also beeter signal-to-noise ratio. This enables more precise detection of sophisticated threats.
At Heptalytics, we believe VoP creates an opportunity to enrich fraud models with name-check signals and improve behavioral correlations.
Finally VoP will make Heptalytics even more valuable by focusing on harder-to-detect fraud types post-VoP.
