At Finom, protecting your money and ensuring your payments reach the right destination is a top priority. That’s why we’ve introduced Verification of Payee (VoP) – a security feature that checks whether the name of the person or business you’re paying matches their bank account details.
What is Verification of Payee and why it matters
Verification of Payee (VoP) is a pre-payment check designed to prevent fraud, reduce payment errors, and comply with European Payment Council (EPC) regulations.
Before a SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) or SEPA Instant Payment is executed, VoP compares the recipient’s name with their IBAN to ensure they match according to the records held by the recipient’s bank.
VoP is automatically triggered when you:
Create a new SEPA transfer (single or bulk)
Edit recipient details in an existing transfer
This helps prevent situations where money is sent to the wrong account due to incorrect details or fraudulent manipulation.
You’ll always see the result of the verification before the payment is processed – giving you confidence and control.
How the feature works in practice when you initiate your SEPA transfer
Here’s what the process looks like for you as a Finom user:
Initiate a SEPA payment
In the Finom app or from the web version, enter the recipient’s full name (first and last name for individuals, or legal name for businesses) and their IBAN.
You can also be asked to fill in the BIC of the recipient, if we could not determine it automatically.
Wait for the VoP result
- For single payments, the check is almost instant.
- For bulk payments, it may take up to 20 minutes.
Review the verification result
Finom sends a query to the recipient's bank to check whether the provided name and IBAN match. Based on their response, you’ll see one of the following results:
✅ Match – Name matches IBAN
Name and IBAN match exactly, you can proceed confidently.
🟡 Close match – Close enough!
There are minor differences; we’ll suggest a name for your review. Please review the suggested name and correct any typos.
❗ No match – Attention: Recipient’s name and IBAN don’t match – please check
The name does not match. Be careful before proceeding, please double-check the name with the recipient.
❗ Verification not possible – it's not possible to check if this IBAN belongs to the Recipient / Verification isn’t available right now / The recipient’s bank couldn’t confirm the data
❗ Bank not supported – The recipient’s bank is not part of the VoP scheme
If the verification results in No match, Verification not possible, or Bank not supported, we recommend you to confirm the details with the recipient before you proceed with the transfer.
4. Proceed or correct the payment
Once the details are verified, complete the transfer. Remember, Finom will never process the payment automatically – you remain in control.
5. Bulk payments (optional)
You can choose to skip VoP before uploading the file – but this is at your own risk. The status will show: “You skipped VoP for the transfer.”
💡 VoP is currently only available for payments within the Eurozone.
It will expand to more countries of the EU by 2027.
Best practices to stay safe
Always verify account details directly with the recipient – never rely on unverified sources like emails or SMS.
Enter the exact name registered with the recipient’s bank.
If anything feels uncertain, don’t feel pressured to proceed.
By using VoP, Finom helps you reduce the risk of sending money to the wrong account and adds an important layer of protection against fraud.