Virgin Money Teams With SurePay on CoP Solution

Payment information company SurePay has teamed up with Virgin Money to help the company implement its U.K. Confirmation of Payee (CoP) solution to guard consumers against fraud and misdirected payments, the companies said Monday (June 13).

According to a news release, the solution lets consumers know their payments are going to the intended recipient, and not being mistakenly or deliberately rerouted. SurePay says its algorithm is designed for CoP and operates within the U.K.’s payment guidelines.

“We are committed to protecting our customers from fraud and Confirmation of Payee is a valuable tool in achieving that,” said Fergus Murphy, Virgin Money’s chief customer experience officer. “SurePay have extensive experience in providing Confirmation of Payee solutions, both in the UK and other countries, which is why we chose to work with them to implement this important protection for our customers.”

Read more: UK Payment Regulator Expands Plan to Fight Authorized Push Payment Fraud

Established in 2020 by the U.K. Payment Systems Regulators (PSR) and six of the country’s largest banking groups, CoP prevents fraud and accidentally misdirected by payments by checking the name on the payee’s account against the name and account details provider by the payer.

Earlier this year, the PSR published a new rule that opened the door for more banks and building societies to adopt CoP, and says it plans to increase the number of companies offering CoP from 33 to 400 by 2024.

The release cites figures from U.K. Finance that says there was a 71% increase in authorized push payments (APP) fraud during the first half of last year, with losses from APP fraud cases outnumbering card fraud losses for the first time.

SurePay says it covers more than 99.5% of the Dutch market, having conducted almost 5 billion checks, and leading to an 81% reduction in fraud to Dutch IBAN’s and 67% less misdirected payments. In the U.K., SurePay was chosen to protect some of the country’s leading financial institutions’ customers, examining 35% of bank transfers.