Households and businesses are being urged to prepare for an extra layer of protection in making payments from their bank, credit union or An Post current accounts from Sunday.
Those making standard and instant payments under the Single Europe Payments Area (Sepa) system willnot only need the right international bank account number (Iban) of the recipient, but also the correct account name of the person or company receiving the money for a new payment or a standing order to run smoothly.
The new so-called verification of payee (Vop) step for all Sepa payments comes as Sepa instant will offer near real-time payment processing across all banks and payment service providers from next week, enabling consumers and businesses to make and receive payments within 10 seconds.
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“This new added layer of security will help customers ensure that their payments are going to the right recipient. Customers should check that their existing payee names match with the actual name on the payee’s bank account and if not, they should update them,” Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) said.
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“For example, any payees listed using descriptions like ‘rent’ or ‘creche’ should be updated to the correct account name.”
The changes reflect a broader effort across Europe to modernise the payments infrastructure and protect consumers with the additional services being introduced under instant payment rules.
Central to the campaign will be the launch of a new online resource payrightnow.ie, which provides a comprehensive range of information and frequently asked questions including specific advice for business customers on how to ensure incoming and outgoing payments are successfully verified under the new Vop process, BPFI said.
“Vop checks will automatically take place on Sepa payments and compare the name of your payee with the actual name on the recipient’s account,” said Gillian Byrne, head of payments at BPFI.
“When the check is complete, customers will be advised if there is match, close match or no match and can then choose to proceed with the payment, correct the name and retry, or cancel the payment.”
A person may still be happy to go ahead with the payment even if they get a notification that the payee’s name doesn’t match. However, their bank will not be responsible if the payment goes to the wrong person or organisation.
“We are particularly mindful of business customers who process much higher volumes of payments and have also therefore included in our website specific information on how these customers can ensure their incoming and outgoing payments continue to be processed smoothly,” Ms Byrne said.
The development comes just months before the planned launch by AIB, Bank of Ireland and PTSB of an instant mobile payments service, called Zippay, in a move to take on Revolut.
While the previous attempt, abandoned two years ago, was based around a new app, this project will be integrated into the banks’ existing mobile apps.
Customers will be able to send, request and split payments instantaneously with Zippay by using the mobile numbers of their contacts who are also using the service – doing away with the need for Ibans or the correct account name of the person receiving a payment.
