In the UK, Confirmation of Payee (CoP) proves that matching account holder and payee details reduces fraud. It’s a solid win. For the European Union (EU), the October 5, 2025, deadline for Verification of Payee (VoP) implementation – a similar fraud prevention initiative – gives priority to that same promise.

Payment Service Providers (PSPs) across Europe, and those doing business in the Eurozone, are in implementation mode behind that impending start date – or should be.

As Product Lead for Risk Solutions at Bottomline, I see VoP giving legitimate financial institutions (FIs) a new edge in the endless war on fraud. With well over half a million FIs and corporations worldwide relying on our payments and financial messaging solutions, being VoP-compliant allows our customers to relax vis-à-vis fraud and feel confident when making large business payments, especially cross-border.

Allowing payers to confirm that the name on the bank account matches the details provided serves two primary purposes:

  • It makes VoP integral in preventing misdirected payments due to errors
  • It makes VoP fundamental to combating authorised push payment fraud (APP), where fraudsters trick payers into making payments to bogus accounts. It’s a massive global business with a ruthless, unethical, yet impressive track record.

It’s also part of a broader mandate to enhance trust and security around instant payments in the SEPA region. There are instructive parallels between VoP and its UK cousin, CoP, which has been operational since 2020.

CoP is the gold standard for account name-checking schemes. The success of CoP in the UK has been remarkable, with reports showing a 16% year-on-year reduction in fraud cases and an 11% reduction in fraud values as of H1 2024.

 

Meeting the Challenges of VoP Implementation

For VoP, the European Payments Council (EPC) aims to onboard some 3,400 PSPs within 10 months. It’s a starkly compressed timeline compared to the UK's four-year CoP rollout. The EPC recognises that not all PSPs will be ‘live’ on day one, but on time or not, VoP is mandatory.

Onboarding must be efficient, with robust testing phases to ensure a smooth rollout. This is where Routing and Validation Mechanisms (RVMs) add immense value to VoP.

RVMs help payers route verification calls and perform matching on their behalf, streamlining the onboarding process. RVMs can also delegate authority to perform onboarding and simulator testing on behalf of PSPs, achieving quicker market entry.

Financial institutions need to work with clients and other vendors that can help plot a course through multiple fraud prevention schemes globally. The concept of RVMs as a unified solution that can interoperate across many schemes is highly valuable in this context, making it easier for PSPs to comply with mandates across different regions.

October 2025 may seem far away, but it's approaching quickly. Collaborating with an experienced vendor like Bottomline—known for its extensive history in processing and securing payments and its insight into most of the UK CoP implementations—will be essential for Payment Service Providers (PSPs) as they navigate the complexities of their VoP implementation.