Global: NatWest launches Confirmation of Payee API for business customers

Confirmation of Payee was introduced across the UK banking industry in June 2020 to combat scammers and guard against customer errors. The technology allows banking customers to carry out a check on individual payments through their online banking, by ensuring the account details entered by the sender accurately match those of the payee.

The new NatWest API will enable commercial customers to carry out bulk checks against outbound payee details, for payments made using Bacs, Chaps and Faster Payments.

Gaurav Gaur, head of commercial payments, NatWest Group says: “Confirmation of Payee has been a game-changing innovation in the battle against fraud and scams in the UK, and today we’re delighted to launch our own API that will allow commercial customers to implement this functionality into their own systems. Not only will this detect fraudulent and misdirected payments, but CoP is also proven to reduce operating costs and improve the digital journey for customers.

Businesses can apply to use NatWest’s Confirmation of Payee API by visiting www.bankofapis.com to register their interest, and will need to have the technical capability and resources within their business to implement the API at their own cost.