Confirmation of Payee FAQs
Confirmation of Payee is an account checking service designed to combat fraud, protect you against human error and reduce the risk of inadvertently sending money to incorrect or fraudulent accounts.
Confirmation of Payee gives you and your payers the confidence they are paying the right person and are not being accidentally or deliberately misdirected. It will help avoid the simple mistakes we can all make when inputting data from a keyboard or mobile phone keypad etc.
- Make sure you give your full name as it appears on your account to anyone paying you.
- Remind people not to create their own shortened version of your name, such as just using initials or a nickname. We will only recognise the name we have on your account.
- When a person is paying into a joint account, they should enter the full name (first and last name) of at least one of the account owners. If they are including more than one name, they must enter the full name of each of the account owners, separated by the word ‘and’, e.g. Jack Cop and Julie Cop.
- Make sure any of your associates who deal with payment-related queries are aware of Confirmation of Payee and can provide the correct details to payers.
It is important that you are sending your money to the right person/place. Always check the account details of the person or business you are sending money to, especially if the Confirmation of Payee service returns a ‘close match’ or ‘it’s not a match’ message.
Confirmation of Payee will not impact the speed of payments both into and out of your account.
‘It’s a match’ means all the details you have entered match.
‘It’s a close match’ means the name of the account or the account type you are paying does not match exactly. You will need to confirm the details are correct before making a payment. It could be as simple as entering O McDonald, but the account is in the name of Oscar McDonald. For outbound payments, you need to check with your payee as to what their account details are.
‘It’s not a match’ means your payer will need to first check they have entered the details provided by you correctly. If they have, they should then contact you to confirm they have the correct details including account name, sort code, account number and account type (business or personal). If the details are correct, you should contact your private banking team or Relationship Manager to confirm the details we hold for your account so you can provide the correct information to your payers. Your account name may differ from how your name appears on your debit card, for example.
For outbound payments, you need to check with your payee that their details are correct on their side before making the payment.
It is good guidance for payers to use their own name/business name. This makes it easier for the payee to identify when a payment has been made. However, there are occasions when you may will need to enter a reference code specified by the recipient, for example, a council tax bill payment will require a unique identifier which usually consists of eight to eleven digits.
It is good guidance for payers to use their own name/business name. This makes it easier for the payee to identify when a payment has been made. However, there are occasions when you may will need to enter a reference code specified by the recipient, for example, a council tax bill payment will require a unique identifier which usually consists of eight to eleven digits.
We should all carefully consider if any payment request is genuine – this is especially true when you receive a ‘no match’ response following a Confirmation of Payee check.
While Confirmation of Payee provides an extra level of reassurance, it does not automatically guarantee a fraudulent payment will be detected. The decision to pay remains the responsibility of the payer.
If you would like to undertake a Confirmation of Payee check for an existing payee, you will need to delete the payee and then add them as a new payee. You will be prompted to perform a Confirmation of Payee check as part of the new payee process.
Weatherbys Private Bank clients should speak their private banking team in the first instance.
Weatherbys Racing Bank clients should speak to their Relationship Manager in the first instance.
You can make a complaint by telephone, by email or by letter, although for your security, we would urge you not to send confidential account information by email.
Tel: +44(0)1933 543 3577
Email: kfoster@weatherbys.bank
Write to: Complaints, Weatherbys Bank Limited, Sanders Road, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, NN8 4BX