What is confirmation of payee?¶

Confirmation of Payee is a pre-transfer comparison between the beneficiary name entered by the payer and the name held for the destination account. It is a warning control, not proof that payment is safe.

The service returns a name-check result¶

Depending on eligibility and system, it may report match, close match, no match or inability to check. A match generally means sufficient alignment with the held account name. Mule or offender-controlled accounts can still match, and a deceived victim can willingly pay the correctly named destination.

Preserve what the payer saw¶

Capture entered details, result, warning text, time and subsequent response. Ask the sending bank what it displayed, whether details changed and whether the user continued.

The result can evidence information available during the decision, but does not identify the actual account user. Interpret it alongside deception, authorisation and receiving-account evidence.