Payment infrastructure provider EBA Clearing has launched SEPA-wide verification of payee (VOP) to help PSPs comply with the upcoming Instant Payment Regulation.
Following the launch of the solution, 5,000 PSPs connected to the company’s RT1 and STEP2 Services will gain a comprehensive pan-European solution, designed to build SEPA-wide reach for VOP.
Leveraging the company’s Fraud Pattern and Anomaly Detection (FPAD) users will be able to use a range of real-time fraud prevention and detection tools based on anomalies and fraud patterns identified at a network level.
This launch comes ahead of the VOP Scheme, developed by the European Payments Council (EPC). These rules require PSPs to offer IBAN/name-matching services to their customers for Sepa transactions, which is a key feature of this solution.
The EPC has mandated that PSPs must offer these services to payers from October 2025.
Erwin Kulk, Head of Service Development and Management at EBA Clearing, said: “We are pleased to provide our vast user community with a pan-European VOP solution 10 months ahead of the deadline set by the IPR for the eurozone. This will allow our users to fine-tune their VOP services and seamlessly integrate them into their payment processes.
“Our solution provides options on the requesting and responding side. Offering different functional and connectivity options has always been a key success factor for us to create pan-European reach fast. Participants starting to use VOP will already receive a VOP response for any IBAN in SEPA ahead of the IPR deadline.
“Moreover, we offer the possibility to enrich VOP data with other FPAD indicators. This provides users with extra insights to catch fraud not stopped by VOP. It also allows them to limit unnecessary friction for end users that VOP would introduce. These assets will help PSPs to make the VOP journey as user-friendly as possible for their customers.”
In August, Payment Expert spoke with Karthik Jagannathan, Head of Payments Advisory at Intix, who shared his views about what impact the upcoming regulations are already having on the industry, what stakeholders can expect, and how they can respond.
