Aussie banks welcome confirmation of payee system

It will check if the account names and numbers entered by the payer.

Australia’s major banks welcomed the launch of the Confirmation of Payee (CoP) system, which they believe will help combat scams.

The system checks the account names and numbers entered by the payer against the details held at the receiving banks, according to the National Australia Bank (NAB).

NAB, the Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) Group, and Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) separately welcomed the CoP rollout.

“We welcome the introduction of Confirmation of Payee as an important step in strengthening Australia’s payments system to help prevent scams before they happen,” said Shaq Johnson, ANZ head of customer protection.

ANZ had recently rolled out two new security features: Digital Padlock, allowing customers to instantly lock their accounts via their app; and Passwordless Web Banking, which replaces passwords with advanced authentication.

CBA, meanwhile, has NameCheck, which searches the account details customers have entered when making a first-time payment in NetBank, the CommBank app or CommBiz.

Based on CommBank’s available payment data, NameCheck will then indicate whether the account details look right.

NameCheck has already saved $650m from scams and mistaken payments for CommBank customers, according to the bank.