Verification of Payee in SEPA payment transactions

From 9 October 2025, banks throughout the EU will be obliged under EU Regulation 2024/886 (Instant Payments Regulation - IPR) to compare the name of the recipient with the name of the account holder when making transfers. 

Verification of Payee (VoP) is being introduced to increase security in SEPA payment transactions and reduce cases of fraud and incorrect transfers. By comparing the recipient's name before a transfer is authorised, fraudulent manipulation can be detected, financial losses avoided, and real-time transfers promoted.

If the ordering party authorises the payments electronically, they receive a verification report upon authorisation (e.g. in the banking portal). Based on the result, the client decides whether the payments should be executed or not. 

The check report shows in traffic light colours whether the recipient name and the name of the account holder match: 

Green (Match): matches. 
Yellow (Close Match): almost matches. 
Red (No Match): does not match. 

No match (No Check): Matching is not possible for technical or functional reasons. 
If the name of the payee does not match that of the account holder, the payment order can only be authorised in full or rejected in full. A partial release of individual payments with "Match" status (green) is not possible. In this case, the ordering party has two options: 
Authorise the transfers despite discrepancies and have the names of the payees corrected subsequently for future payments. 
Have the names of the payees corrected in advance and then authorise the payments again. 

If the status is "green" (match), the bank will be liable for incorrect transfers in future.

If the status is "Yellow" (Close Match) or "Red" (No Match) and the client still authorises the transfers, the client will be liable for incorrect transfers as before.