Verification of Payee (VoP): the 4 results and what to do

What is Verification of Payee?

Verification of Payee, or VoP, is a check carried out just before a euro transfer is sent. Your payment provider asks the payee’s provider a simple question: does the name you entered match the holder of the IBAN? The answer is displayed before you confirm.

The check limits two risks: typing errors that send money to a stranger’s account, and fraud, such as a fake invoice or a fake change of IBAN that diverts a payment to a fraudster’s account.

It only looks at the name and the IBAN together. It confirms who owns the account, but says nothing about how trustworthy the payee is or whether the payment request is genuine.

Since when, and for which transfers?

The check has been mandatory in the euro area since 9 October 2025. It comes from Regulation (EU) 2024/886, which inserted an Article 5c into Regulation (EU) 260/2012, known as the SEPA Regulation. You have nothing to switch on: your provider runs the check.

It covers transfers in euros, whether the payee is an individual, a company or a public body: rent, an energy bill or a contractor’s invoice are all concerned in the same way.

The obligation applies in the euro area. If the payee’s provider does not take part, the check cannot be completed: you then get “verification not possible”, and it is up to you to confirm the details another way.

How the check works

The check does not commit you to anything. It gives you information at the moment you can still act, before the money leaves your account.

The principle is always the same; only the screens differ from one provider to another:

1. You enter the IBAN and the payee’s name, as shown on their invoice, lease or account details.
2. Your provider sends both to the payee’s provider, which compares them with the account holder’s name.
3. The result appears before you confirm, with the registered name in the case of a close match.
4. You decide: send, correct the name or the IBAN, or cancel.

The 4 Verification of Payee results

Labels vary between providers, but you will always see one of these four results. In every case, the decision is yours: you can still send, correct or cancel.

Two examples. You pay your rent to “L. Dubois”: the check returns “close match” and shows “Laure Dubois”. It is indeed your landlord: use that name and send. Conversely, your designer emails you a new IBAN and the check returns “no match” for “Studio Ana”: call her on the number you usually use before paying, because this is exactly what the check is meant to reveal.

The table below sums up what each result means and what to do.

Pooled accounts: why you get “no match”

Some platforms do not give you an account in your own name. They give you the IBAN of an account that belongs to them, plus a reference that identifies you. This is a pooled account, also called a collection account.

When someone pays into such an IBAN using your name, the check compares that name with the real account holder: the platform. The result is usually “no match”. Your payer sees an alert and must choose between sending anyway and entering the platform’s name.

The account holder’s name has therefore become a selection criterion: with an IBAN in your own name, the check returns a match. The differences between named, virtual and pooled IBANs are explained in our dedicated guide.

Good habits, whether you pay or get paid

A few habits are enough to benefit from the check without being slowed down by it. They also apply to scheduled transfers: if a payee tells you their IBAN has changed, verify it before you update your standing order.

Here are the five habits to adopt, as a payer and as a payee:

• Copy the exact name of the account holder as it appears on the invoice, the lease or the account details, rather than a nickname or an abbreviation.
• For a company, use the name given with its IBAN: a trading name may differ from the account holder’s name.
• On a “no match”, check through a channel you already know: a phone number you have used before, not the one in the suspicious message.
• Be wary of a change of IBAN announced by email alone, especially if it is presented as urgent.
• When you get paid, give your name exactly as it appears on your account, and warn your payers if your IBAN belongs to a pooled account.

Your name on every transfer

Verification of Payee has brought a once-technical question into plain view: whose name is the account in? For a landlord, a supplier or a contractor, a payment from an account in your own name is immediately recognisable.

That is the idea behind CryptoIBAN: a Belgian IBAN in your own name, funded by converting your crypto into euros. When you pay, the payee’s name is verified before sending, and your payee sees your name and a BE IBAN, as with any SEPA transfer.