Verification of Payee, one year on: why the name on the IBAN matters more than ever

One year of Verification of Payee

On 9 October 2025, Verification of Payee, or VoP, became mandatory in the euro area under article 5c of Regulation (EU) 2024/886. Its principle fits in one sentence: before you confirm a transfer, the name you entered is compared with the name of the holder of the receiving account.

The check only concerns whether a name and an IBAN belong together, not the amount or the purpose of the payment. Yet it raises a question that long stayed in the background: whose name is the account really in?

Four answers, and the decision stays yours

The check returns one of four answers, each calling for a different reflex.

Pooled accounts: the limits of “name + reference”

Some services rely on a pooled account: a single IBAN in the platform’s name, and a reference to tell each user apart.

Verification of Payee exposes the limits of that model. The payer enters the name of the person they want to pay, but the account is in the platform’s name, so the check generally returns “no match”. The payment can still go, but with a warning the payer has to override knowingly.

This is why, in crypto-related services as elsewhere, an account in the customer’s own name has become a condition for things to work smoothly: several services now highlight account details “in your name”.

Your name, as seen by the people you pay

The check covers the name of the person you pay. But a transfer carries another name too: that of the holder of the sending account. That is the name your landlord, your supplier or your accountant sees.

When the account is in your name, what the payee sees matches the lease, the invoice or the tax notice. When it is in a platform’s name, the payment can be harder to reconcile. The name has become central to every transfer: that consistency matters for the paying account too.

The country of the IBAN should not matter

EU law is clear: within the EU, a payee or a payer may not impose the country of an IBAN (Regulation (EU) 260/2012, art. 9). A Belgian IBAN therefore cannot be refused because of its country.

Practice is slower to follow. The European Consumer Centres Network (ECC-Net) received 4,688 complaints about IBAN discrimination between 2021 and early 2025, and an inspection by France’s DGCCRF found an anomaly rate of around 25% among 65 businesses checked.

If you are refused, start with a letter citing article 9; failing that, report it on SignalConso in France, or to the European Consumer Centre elsewhere. Our guide to IBAN discrimination includes a template letter.

Pooled and virtual IBANs: the authorities’ attention

The question of the name goes beyond the payer’s convenience. In March 2026, France’s ACPR and Tracfin published a joint report on virtual IBANs, devoted to the money-laundering risks of pooled or virtual IBANs.

Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 (AMLR), applicable from 10 July 2027, points the same way: it prohibits accounts whose holder is not identified (art. 79) and provides for the identification of virtual IBAN users. For you, the consequence is simple: an account in your own name leaves no doubt about who holds it, for your payees or for the authorities.

Good habits for your transfers

A few habits are enough to make the most of the check, and they also help guard against IBAN-change fraud:

• Enter the holder’s exact name as it appears on the lease, the invoice or the tax notice; for a company, its registered name.
• Save payees once they are verified, so you do not retype their details at every due date.
• If your rent is collected by an agency, check whose name the account is in: it may be the agency’s.
• Never confirm a new IBAN through the message that announces it: use a channel you already know.
• Keep the receipt of every transfer.

At CryptoIBAN

Your account comes with a Belgian IBAN in your own name. Your payees see your name and a BE IBAN, as with any SEPA transfer, and the payee’s name is checked before sending.

Your transfers reach the 41 countries of the SEPA schemes and are credited by the next business day at the latest. Each payment comes with a PDF receipt to forward to your landlord or your accountant.