ACI Worldwide has extended its fintech partnership with Banfico to ensure that payment service providers (PSPs) across the UK and Europe are compliant with Confirmation of Payee (CoP) guidelines.
Both companies will also support PSPs by complying with Verification of Payee (VOP) services, with ACI Worldwide leaning on its payment technology capabilities and Banfico’s experience as a CoP aggregator.
The partnership extension will expand on ACI’s work of processing account-to-account payments for a myriad of PSPs in the UK and Europe, whilst Banfico continues to leverage its Open Banking APIs to offer CoP to new and existing customers in the UK.
Nick Craig, Head of Europe at ACI Worldwide, said: “Account verification services are a critical component of modern payment systems. VOP is a key requirement as part of Europe’s Instant Payment Regulation. Similarly, in the UK, most major banks and PSPs have implemented CoP to enhance payment security and reduce APP fraud.
“Partnering with Banfico enables ACI to support our customers to adhere to new market and regulatory requirements more swiftly and to make instant payments more secure.”
The UK Payments System Regulator (PSR) introduced CoP in 2020 to help companies name check services for payments in the country so they know they have correctly verified the recipient.
VOP is a pan-European regulation that will take effect by October 2025. This rule outlines that PSPs must confirm account names and numbers before sending a transaction, which are protected by added levels of authentication and security.
Both CoP and the upcoming VOP regulations are essential for PSP compliance teams to adhere to not only avoid any regulatory penalties, but also with the advent of Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud on the rise.
In a bid to tackle APP fraud in the UK, the PSR introduced new rules in October 2024 that requires UK PSPs to reimburse customers who are a victim of APP fraud, capped at £85,000.
“We are excited about our partnership with ACI Worldwide; it combines the best of both worlds: ACI’s unrivalled capabilities in payments software technology, and Banfico’s expertise in account verification services,” commented Kannan Rasappan, CEO of Banfico.
“Our partnership with ACI Worldwide strengthens Banfico’s commitment to the UK and European market and will enable us to drive innovation in regulatory solutions for banks across the region.”
