The Instant Payments Regulation (IPR)
The EU's Instant Payments Regulation aims to facilitate efficient cross-border transactions. Discover how this regulation may affect your business and your banking practices here.
Verification of Payee (VoP)
One element of the EU’s Instant Payments Regulation is Verification of Payee (VoP), which is designed to ensure that funds reach the intended recipient. This is done by verifying the recipient’s name and IBAN number, prior to approving and executing a payment. The introduction of Verification of Payee in October 2025, aims to mitigate errors and reduce fraud, in turn strengthening the reliability of transactions across Europe. Verification of Payee will apply to both instant and regular SEPA Credit Transfers.
How to prepare for VoP
To ensure a smooth transition, there are a few things we recommend that you do to prepare before Verification of Payee is introduced on the 9th October 2025.
For payments made to you
We recommend that you ensure that the name used on your invoices matches the name registered on your account. That way, your payers will use the correct account holder name, reducing risk of potential payment delays or inquiries from your customers due to incorrect matches when processing payments to your accounts.
For payments you make
It’s a good idea to review the details of your existing payees in your accounting and payroll systems to make sure that the name and IBAN of the beneficiary match those associated with the bank account. We also recommend that you review details in your creditor lists in District.
VoP for file payments
If you wish to opt in to VoP for file payments, a service will be available via the file menu in District to check files prior to the usual payment processing. If you need access to the files module in District, please contact your adviser.
You can continue using Danske Bank’s integration solutions without any changes. By doing so you will be deemed to have opted out of your right to verify the payee and Danske Bank will not be liable for any loss you suffer as a result.
What will change when VoP is introduced?
Verification of Payee is designed to help protect against fraud and data input errors in payments. As such, as a business operating in the Eurozone (and Danske Bank’s markets in Finland or Ireland), your payments process will look a little different from the 9th October 2025.
From the 9th October, when you make a payment within the EU (a SEPA or a SEPA Instant Payment) a VoP check can be performed against the name on the account you want to pay. You will be notified right away of whether the payment details are a match, a partial match or do not match based on this information you can then choose to continue with the payment, cancel the payment or investigate the basis for the partial match or no match result before performing another verification. Please note, that this process will automatically apply for SEPA payments made in District and will also apply for file payments if you opt in and use the file solution in District.
VoP will also apply to payments made to you. This means that where you have issued an invoice or are in receipt of a SEPA payment, the payer may be required to perform a VoP check on your name and IBAN.
Verification of Payee checks
When your VoP check has been performed, you will receive a notification telling if the payment details match those you provided. Below you can see an overview of the different responses you might see.
| Response | What does the response mean? | Recommendations |
|---|---|---|
| Match | This confirms that the name you entered matches the name on the bank account of your payee. | We recommend proceeding with a payment only in circumstances where you are confident the source of the payee details is trustworthy. |
| Partial match | The name does not exactly match, but a suggested name will be provided for you to verify. | Where you are contacting the payee to confirm payment details following a partial match, we recommend only doing so via a communication channel that you can trust. |
| No match | The details you entered do not match those on the bank account. | Where you are contacting the payee to confirm payment details following a no match, we again recommend only doing so via a communication channel that you can trust. |
| Verification check not possible | Notification if the verification of payee service is unavailable or there is a technical error. You may also receive this response if you try to verify an IBAN that isn’t in scope for Verification of Payee. | We recommend waiting until the VoP service is available before attempting the check again. Should you choose to proceed with the payment without completing a VoP check, you do so at your own risk. |
Please note:
- When checking payment details, you should contact the person or business using a trusted phone number. Avoid numbers provided in emails or text messages, as they may be fraudulent.
- Do not feel pressured to proceed with a payment if the details do not match, or if the account cannot be verified.
- After the 9th October 2025, if you opt not to use our VoP service, or opt to continue a payment in spite of a “partial match” or “no match” response, Danske Bank will not be liable for any loss you suffer as a result.
Impact on File Payments
If your company uses Danske Bank’s file services and would like to continue doing so without any interruptions to your payment flows, you can opt out of Verification of Payee for file payments. For further information on opting-out, please refer to the appropriate terms and conditions.
However, should you wish to opt in to VoP checks for file payments a service will be available in District for uploading a payment file for the VoP check, prior to sending the file via the usual channel for payment processing. The service will support all major Danske Bank formats: ISO 20022, CSV and MT.
Where you perform VoP checks on a payment file and no match or partial match results are returned on certain payments, you may be required to amend the payment file accordingly before sending for processing.
