Pay.UK has expanded its name-checking service Confirmation of Payee (CoP), as part of efforts to strengthen protection for UK consumers against authorised push payment (APP) fraud and misdirected payments.
The expansion of CoP by the not-for-profit operator of the UK’s national retail payments system fulfils the Payment Systems Regulator’s (PSR) Specific Direction 17, issued on 11 October 2022, mandating all regulated payment service providers (PSPs) to implement CoP by 31 October this year.
As of September 2024, CoP had processed more than 2.5 billion checks since its launch in 2020, and currently conducts in excess of 2.1 million checks daily.
This latest expansion of the service represents a 200% increase in coverage since the mandate was issued and is expected to further increase daily check volumes by 7%.
By rolling out CoP to hundreds of additional financial firms, it means that over 99% of all transactions made through Faster Payments and CHAPS are now safeguarded by the anti-fraud measure.
Pay.UK’s Kate Frankish
Kate Frankish, chief business development officer and anti-fraud lead at Pay.UK, said: “This latest expansion, driven by collaboration with the industry, significantly strengthens our collective defences against fraud. By simplifying access for PSPs, we’re ensuring that everyone can benefit from this crucial layer of protection.”
Frankish added that it is not just about reacting to fraud, but about “proactively building a more secure payments ecosystem” for the UK.
“While reimbursement is important, true progress lies in preventing fraud from happening in the first place, and CoP is a powerful tool in achieving that goal,” she said.
PSR head of policy Kate Fitzgerald said that CoP has “quickly become an essential anti-fraud tool”.
“We’re tackling fraud from multiple angles – ensuring widespread checks and safeguards, implementing strong reputational and financial incentives for industry action, and promoting better data and intelligence sharing,” she said.
“Expanding Confirmation of Payee to more firms is a crucial step in our ongoing work to protect consumers and drive fraud out of the UK’s payment systems.”
In the first half of 2024 alone, more than £213 million was lost to APP fraud, according to the PSR.
On 7 October, the PSR’s new mandatory APP fraud reimbursement rules came into effect, which split the cost of reimbursement 50:50 between sending and receiving firms for the first time.
The PSR has been collecting data on how fraud starts and, later in 2024, will publish this data to raise awareness about the different ways fraudsters can target victims, including through social media platforms.
