In a coordinated industry effort to tackle financial scams and erroneous payments, Australian banks have launched a national ‘Confirmation of Payee’ (CoP) service—an advanced name-matching technology designed to verify recipient account details before a transaction is finalised.

Backed by a collective investment of AU$100 million, the CoP system checks whether the account name, Bank-State-Branch (BSB) code, and account number entered by the sender match the details held by the receiving bank. Customers are then shown the result of this verification in real time before proceeding with the payment.

“This is critical new technology that will help protect customers from transferring money directly into the hands of scammers,” said Anna Bligh, CEO of the Australian Banking Association (ABA). “Australia is one of the few countries globally where scam losses are decreasing, but continued investment in cutting-edge fraud prevention tools is essential to keep driving those numbers down.”

The initiative follows a broader global shift towards enhanced payment security, with the United Kingdom having already operationalised its CoP system and the European Union mandating a similar framework by October 2025 under the EU Instant Payments Regulation.

Belgium has become the first EU member state to go live with the expanded version of the CoP framework, which incorporates enhanced user alerts, multilingual capabilities, and improved data sharing to assist financial institutions in early fraud detection.

Australia’s adoption of the CoP system marks a significant milestone in its digital payments modernization agenda. Industry observers expect the technology to reduce both accidental misdirected transfers and fraudulent redirections—two of the most common forms of financial loss in the digital banking ecosystem.

The rollout aligns with regulatory calls for stronger consumer safeguards and real-time payment integrity, especially as scams targeting bank customers become increasingly sophisticated. The technology is expected to be embedded across online and mobile banking platforms nationwide in the coming months.

“By proactively verifying payee information before funds leave a customer’s account, we’re closing one of the biggest gaps exploited by cybercriminals,” Bligh added.

Australia’s banking industry has also committed to ongoing public education campaigns and coordinated data-sharing mechanisms to reinforce the impact of the new system and support consumer trust in digital financial services.