Experian and iPiD have partnered to extend bank account verification for UK businesses into European and international markets.
The collaboration builds on Experian's existing UK account ownership verification coverage, extending it to Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) markets and to the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
As businesses increasingly transact across multiple jurisdictions, confirming account ownership before payments are made has become a factor in reducing fraud risk and payment errors. Verification standards vary significantly between markets, and businesses operating internationally have typically had to rely on a mix of tools and manual processes to confirm payee details in different regions.
Under the partnership, iPiD's account verification network is integrated into Experian's platform, giving Experian's clients access to a single verification solution that spans domestic and international markets. In addition, Experian states it is currently the only credit reference agency offering both UK Confirmation of Payee and Verification of Payee capabilities across global markets.
Verification speed and coverage
According to the companies, iPiD's system verifies accounts in 2.3 seconds without requiring additional action from the customer, which the companies contrast with slower manual verification methods such as optical character recognition of bank statements. The verification process flags matches as perfect, partial, or no match, an approach intended to help organisations calibrate friction, applying additional checks only where a match is not confirmed while allowing verified matches to proceed without delay.
At launch, the partnership provides coverage across 30 countries, with the companies stating that this is expected to expand towards 90% of the world's banked population over time. No specific timeline for this expansion was provided.
Industry context
Paul Weathersby, Chief Product Officer, Identity and Fraud at Experian UK&I, said that inconsistent verification standards across markets create friction and risk for clients operating internationally, and that integrating iPiD's capability allows Experian to offer a single method of confirming account ownership regardless of location.
Furthermore, Damien Dugauquier, Co-Founder and CEO of iPiD, said payee verification is becoming a foundational trust mechanism as payment initiation shifts from manual processes toward automated and AI-driven payment flows, adding that confirming the right party before a payment leaves needs to happen automatically and instantly.
The partnership reflects a broader trend in the payments sector toward automated identity and account verification, as businesses process a growing share of cross-border payments through digital and increasingly automated channels. For payment service providers and financial institutions, integrated verification tools that cover multiple markets through one interface may reduce the operational complexity of managing separate compliance and fraud-prevention processes across jurisdictions.
