Verification of Payee: Mandatory from October 2025 - What Banks and Businesses Need to Know

A new era of payment security in Europe

From 9 October 2025, a major change comes to SEPA credit transfers: Verification of Payee (VoP) will become mandatory across the EU. This regulatory shift aims to make transfers — especially instant payments — more secure, reducing misdirected payments and preventing fraud before money leaves the sender’s account.

For banks, PSPs, and corporate treasuries, this is more than compliance. It’s an opportunity to strengthen trust, reduce fraud losses, and improve operational efficiency.

What is Verification of Payee (VoP)?

VoP is a name-IBAN matching check performed before a payment is authorised. Within seconds, it tells the payer whether the account details entered correspond to the intended recipient:

• ✅ Match – The IBAN and account name fully align.
• ⚠️ Close Match – Minor discrepancies exist (e.g. typos, abbreviations).
• ❌ No Match – The IBAN does not belong to the stated name.
• 🚫 No check possible – For example, if the recipient’s bank is not yet part of the VoP scheme.

This simple step gives the payer control — reducing the risk of fraud, errors, and costly reversals.

Why VoP matters now

Several forces are converging to make VoP a must-have capability for European payments:

• Regulatory compliance – The EU Instant Payments Regulation requires VoP implementation.
• Fraud prevention – Invoice and payment fraud costs businesses billions annually; VoP provides a frontline defense.
• Customer trust – Clients expect their banks and ERP systems to safeguard transfers.
• Efficiency gains – Detecting mismatches early prevents failed payments and reconciliation headaches.

BANQR Cash 365: VoP already built in

At BANQR, we’ve anticipated this change. Our Cash 365 solution — the ERP-integrated treasury platform for real-time banking — already includes Verification of Payee as a standard feature.

That means:

• Real-time VoP checks before every SEPA and instant payment
• Immediate feedback (match, close match, no match) directly in the ERP workflow
• 24/7/365 availability with full SEPA coverage
• Compliance by design – aligned with EPC Rulebook and EU regulation
• Multi-bank compatibility – works across integrated banking connections in Cash 365
• Fewer failed payments and reduced reconciliation work

In practice, your finance teams don’t need to learn a new system. They simply continue working in the ERP — while Cash 365 automatically ensures VoP compliance in the background.

Real-world scenarios businesses should prepare for

Even with VoP in place, mismatches will occur. Typical examples include:

• Suppliers using trade names instead of legal names
• Typos or abbreviations in master data
• Transfers to recently opened or renamed accounts

Without proper handling, these cases can frustrate payers or delay payments. With Cash 365, mismatches are flagged in real time, so finance teams can either correct data or verify exceptions without disrupting payment flows.

Conclusion: VoP as a new standard for trust in payments

Verification of Payee is more than a regulatory requirement. It’s a game-changer for payment trust and fraud prevention in Europe.

With BANQR’s Cash 365, businesses and banks are already prepared: VoP is seamlessly embedded in their payment workflows, ensuring compliance, security, and efficiency from day one.