What to do when Confirmation of Payee shows no match

Confirmation of Payee is the name check that runs when you set up a new payee or send a bank transfer. Your bank asks the receiving bank whether the name you typed matches the name on the account, and comes back with one of a small set of answers: a match, a close match, no match, or a message saying the check could not be carried out¹.

A no match does not stop the payment. Banks let you go ahead, but the warning is there because the money may not be recoverable if it lands in the wrong account³. The check is designed to prevent certain scams and misdirected payments, and it has been part of UK banking since 2020⁴.

What follows is what each result means, what to check when the name does not match, which payments the service does not cover, and where the protection stops.

How Confirmation of Payee checks a name before you pay

The service works by checking whether the name of the account a payer is sending money to matches the name they have entered, with alerts notifying the payer when there has not been a match². It sits inside your banking app or online banking, at the point where you add a payee or confirm a payment, so the answer arrives before the money moves.

The check compares more than the name. Banks use the service to check whether the name and account type, personal or business, that you enter when setting up a new payee matches the details registered with the bank receiving the money⁵. The details in play are the name on the account, the account number, the sort code, the account type and the reference³. You always need the correct full account name, so nicknames or other informal versions will not do³.

The receiving bank does the comparing, against its own records. That is why the answer can surprise you even when you are sure the details are right: what matters is not what the payee told you, but what their bank holds.

The service is run across the industry rather than by one bank. The technical standards were agreed in work coordinated by Pay.UK and made ready for implementation by banks and other payment service providers¹¹. The rules that brought it in came from the Payment Systems Regulator, which describes it as one important tool for preventing authorised push payment scams¹¹.

Match, close match or no match: what each result tells you

Banks describe the outcomes in slightly different words, but they mean the same things. The regulator's own summary is that alerts notify the payer whether there has been a match, a close match, or no match, meaning corrections can be made before the payment is sent¹. Some banks add a fourth answer for the case where no check was possible at all⁶.

A close match is the one people misread. It is not a soft version of a match, and it is not a warning that something is wrong. It usually means the name is close but not identical, which is common with shortened first names, middle names left out, or a business trading under a different name from the one it is registered with⁶.

A no match is firmer. It means the name you entered does not match the name on the account at the receiving bank⁶. That can be an innocent slip, or it can be the moment a scam is interrupted.

The details you need to enter: names, account type and business accounts

Most no match results come from the details rather than from fraud, and the details are easy to get wrong.

• Use the full name as the bank holds it. Full first name and surname, exactly as it appears on the account, plus the account type, personal or business⁴.
• Do not use a nickname or a shortened form. The name on the account is what counts, so nicknames and other informal versions will not match³.
• Get the account type right. The check compares the type you select with the type held, so marking a business account as personal can produce a mismatch⁵.
• Watch joint accounts. A joint account may be held in one name, so paying it using the other holder's name can fail the check.
• Business names are the usual culprit. A business is checked against its registered name, which is often not the name above the door or on the website.

If you are the one being paid, the same rules apply in reverse. To receive a payment cleanly, the payer needs your full first name and surname exactly as it appears on your account, and your account type⁴.

What to do next when the name does not match

A no match is a prompt to stop and verify, not a block. The guidance banks give is blunt: the details do not match, and it is important to stop and verify the information⁹.

1. Do not pay yet. Leave the payment unconfirmed while you check.
2. Contact the person or business using details you already had. Use a phone number from a statement, a contract or a previous message, never one supplied in the message or invoice that prompted this payment. If the request to pay arrived by email or text, treat a changed account number as a warning sign in itself.
3. Check the name, not just the numbers. Ask the payee to confirm the exact name their account is held in, including whether it is a personal or business account.
4. Re-enter the details and run the check again. A corrected name or account type often turns a no match into a match.
5. If it still does not match, decide with the risk in front of you. You can still make the payment, but if the account name and number do not match and you go ahead without checking, the bank may not be able to recover your money if it goes to the wrong account³. The payment could go to the wrong account and the bank may not be able to get it back¹³.

If you have already sent money to the wrong account, tell your bank straight away. Speed matters, because a payment that has not yet been collected can sometimes be recalled. There is a step-by-step route in paid a fraudster? What to do straight away, and if the money went to a scammer rather than simply the wrong account, the rules on refunds are set out in authorised push payment reimbursement.

Payments and providers the check does not cover

Confirmation of Payee is not available for all types of payments, such as international transfers⁸. If you are sending money overseas, the name check you rely on at home does not apply, and the receiving bank may not be part of any equivalent scheme. Some banks run a similar check for SEPA payments within Europe, but that is a separate arrangement¹⁴.

BACS payments, including direct debits, are not included¹⁵. The rules also leave out bulk payment file submission, unattended payments, and any payments processed when the customer is not present¹⁶.

Coverage has widened over time. When the regulator extended the rules, it said the provision of checks was then provided by over 50 payment service providers, accounting for over 90% of Faster Payments transactions, and that prioritising the next group would increase coverage from 92% of Faster Payments transactions to 99% after October 2023¹⁶. The deadline for the second group of firms to introduce the checks was 31 October 2024¹⁰.

If you try to set up a payment to an account with a bank that does not use Confirmation of Payee, your bank will tell you it cannot check the account name, and you can then decide whether to go ahead⁴. That is different from a no match: nobody has told you the details are wrong, only that nobody could confirm them.

Why the check sometimes cannot be carried out

An "unable to check" or "unavailable" message is the one people find most confusing, because it looks like a failure rather than an answer. It is not a warning about the payee.

The reasons banks give are practical. The payee's bank may not be part of the Confirmation of Payee scheme yet, the account type may be unsupported, or there may be a technical issue¹². The account holder may have opted out of the service, or the bank may not be enrolled¹³. The account details entered may not exist, or the payee may have opted out¹⁷. Your payee's account may simply be a type that cannot be checked at all³.

What it means for you is that you have no name confirmation to lean on. The payment is not blocked, and there is no suggestion the payee is dishonest, but the safety net that would have caught a wrong digit is not there. In that situation the sensible checks are the ones that do not depend on the bank: confirm the account details by voice with someone you already know, and be wary of any payment request that arrived unexpectedly.

Will Confirmation of Payee stop me being scammed?

It helps, and it is one of the more useful tools available, but it is not a guarantee. The regulator describes it as a service that aims to prevent certain types of scams and misdirected payments from happening¹⁸, and as the name checking service designed to help prevent authorised push payment scams and misdirected payments¹⁹.

The limit is in what it checks. It confirms that a name matches an account. It does not confirm that the person asking for money is who they say they are, that the reason for the payment is genuine, or that the account is not a money mule's. A fraudster who holds an account in their own real name will pass a match, and the check will tell you nothing is wrong.

That is why a match should be treated as one good sign rather than proof. The wider warning signs, the ones that catch the scams a name check cannot, are set out in how to spot a scam. If a payment does go wrong, the refund rules for bank transfer scams are explained in claiming a refund from your bank, and where a bank refuses, taking a refused scam refund to the Financial Ombudsman sets out the next step.