Confirmation of Payee explained

Confirmation of Payee is a name-checking service that helps make sure payments – such as single payments, bills, standing orders and CHAPS – are sent to the correct personal or business account.

When you set up a new payee or update an existing payee, you can:

• ask us to check that the name you’ve entered matches the name on the account you’re sending money to
• understand the risk of making a payment when the name doesn’t match.

For paying joint accounts, you only need to use the full name of one of the account holders.

For paying business accounts, you need to select that it is a business account and enter the full business or organisation name.

The Confirmation of Payee service will give you 4 different results:

• Account name is a match
• Account name is a close match
• Account name is not a match
• Unable to check the account

We may explain a bit more about the result, depending on the reason you’re seeing it. For example, if you’ve chosen to pay a personal account when the payee is a business, we’ll let you know.

There are a few reasons Confirmation of Payee might not work for you.

We won't be able to match the name you've entered:

• within the first 24 hours of opening a new account
• on payments to a Nationwide credit card account
• if you're paying someone whose building society or bank doesn't use Confirmation of Payee.

You can still make the payment – but always double-check the account name and details are correct.

To help keep your money safe, be alert when:

• someone you don’t know asks you to make a payment
• the name of the person you’re paying doesn’t match the account name
• someone asks you to ignore the check when the account name doesn’t match
• you feel pressured to make a payment
• a person or business’s account details change unexpectedly.

And remember:

• don’t give out your personal or financial details
• never open a link in an unexpected or suspicious email or text
• a genuine bank or business will never ask you for your PIN, banking password, or to move any money.

If you’re trying to receive a payment from someone and they’re told the name doesn’t match, it may be that we don’t have your correct name.

You can avoid payment delays by keeping your details up-to-date. If anything changes — for example, your last name if you get married — please let us know.