To curb rising scam threats, Australian banks have begun the rollout of the industry-wide security feature Confirmation of Payee (CoP), a name-matching solution designed to reduce fraud and mistaken payments. The initiative, developed by Australian Payments Plus (AP+), forms part of the Australian Banking Association’s (ABA) Scam-Safe Accord.
Under the system, customers entering a BSB and account number during a payment transaction will be shown whether the name they have entered matches the one held by the receiving bank. This added verification step is designed to flag inconsistencies before funds are transferred.
“Confirmation of Payee is all about giving customers greater control and confidence when making payments,” said AP+ chief payments and schemes officer Adrian Lovney. “It’s a simple concept, but it adds a powerful extra layer of protection for everyday transactions.”
Commonwealth Bank (CommBank), one of the first to integrate CoP, will pair it with its in-house NameCheck technology. Launched earlier, NameCheck assesses whether payment details entered match previous transaction data, accounting for nicknames, trading names and risk indicators.
“When someone transfers money into my dad’s account using his nickname rather than the legal name registered with CommBank as his financial institution, NameCheck will create a match based on available payment information and past transaction data, complementing CoP’s analysis of information,” said Alison Chang, CommBank’s general manager for payments.
Chang added that NameCheck has already prevented an estimated $650 million in customer losses. Together with CoP, the two tools aim to create safer digital payment experiences by flagging suspicious transfers in real time.
“For CommBank customers, CoP and NameCheck are more powerful together, as NameCheck provides additional activity-based risk warnings, even if the account name matches,” she said.
The CoP rollout is expected to reach most Australian banks through 2025, including the National Australia Bank (NAB), which welcomed the move as a meaningful preventive tool.
“Scammers are criminal grubs who will do anything to rip Australians off,” said NAB Group investigations executive Chris Sheehan. “Confirmation of Payee will help target issues like business email compromise scams and mistaken payments, but it’s not a silver bullet”.
ABA CEO Anna Bligh underscored Australia’s lead in the global fight against financial scams. “This is critical new technology that will help protect a customer from transferring money straight into the hands of a scammer,” she said. “Australia will be one of only a handful of countries to have this technology in place across the entire banking sector.”
Assistant treasurer and minister for financial services Dr Daniel Mulino joined Sheehan and ABA representatives during the official launch, reinforcing the government’s support for technological defences against scams.
A national awareness campaign titled “Check the name. Spot the scam.” has also been launched to educate Australians on the new tool.
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