Australian Banks to launch CoP Anti-Scam Service

One of the key commitments of the Australian banking industry’s Scam Accord has hit a milestone, with developers Australian Payments Plus (AP+) and the Australian Banking Association (ABA) confirming key design features of their new Confirmation of Payee (CoP) service.

Enhancing security on Australia’s NPP

A key commitment of the banking industry’s Scam Accord, the Confirmation of Payee service is designed to sit atop Australia’s dedicated fast payments rail, the New Payments Platform (NPP), helping to avoid misdirected payments before they hit the rail. AP+ said it expects the function to be ready for implementation by Australian banks in early 2025.

Features of the new Confirmation of Payee system include:

• A central matching service, which will determine a name match based on account data provided by each payee financial institution when compared to the account name entered by the payer;

• Where a name match result is a match or close match, a name display will be provided to the payer – if the result is not a match, then the name of the account holder will not be displayed;

• Where the payee is an account held by more than one person, only the person named by the payer will be displayed, along with an indication that there are other account holders (‘and others’). It will not display the other names associated with that account;

• There will be no central database. Instead, all account data will remain with the financial institution or service provider.
  
  

SWIFT to build key service for Australia’s Anti-Scam initiative

Global payments messaging developer SWIFT has been enlisted to build and manage the central matching service that will underpin the Confirmation of Payee service.

Officials from ABA said the new service would give customers more confidence that they are transferring money to the right person. They are one step closer to having a new weapon in the war against scammers. It forms part of the sector’s Scam-Safe Accord which is a set of safeguards by banks to help keep the Australian's money safe.

The new service is expected to be rolled out in phases, with centralised capability including account matching logic and standardised APIs being progressively built and tested throughout 2024. This would enable financial institutions to integrate the service into their banking channels from early 2025.