Under the EU Instant Payments Regulation, a payer's provider must offer a free payee check before the payer authorises a transfer. A full match raises no alert, a near match shows the account holder name, and a mismatch warns the payer. In euro-area states the duty applied from 9 October 2025.
What the regulation requires
Regulation (EU) 2024/886 amends the earlier SEPA rules. Article 5c requires the payer's provider to offer the check, in any channel, before authorisation. The check must be free of charge for all users under Article 5b(2).
The goal is to reduce misdirected payments and fraud where a payer is tricked into using the wrong account.
The match outcomes to design for
- IBAN and name both match: no alert.
- Close match: the provider shows the payee name linked to that account, so the payer can decide.
- No match: the payer is warned that funds could go to an account not held by the intended payee.
- Legal entities: where identifiers such as a fiscal number, EUID or LEI are available, they can be used for matching.
- Joint or multi-payee accounts: the provider confirms whether the intended payee is among the holders.
Each outcome needs clear wording in your UI. A warning that is too vague or too frequent trains customers to click through.
Dates
| Obligation | Euro-area states | Non-euro states |
|---|---|---|
| Payee verification (Article 5c) | 9 October 2025 | 9 July 2027 |
Payment and e-money institutions have separate dates for sending and receiving instant transfers, as listed in the regulation. Check the current text for your category.
Business customers and bulk files
Business users who send packaged payments can opt out of the check and opt back in at any time. If you build a corporate channel, make the opt-out an explicit, logged choice, and consider the fraud risk of leaving it off.
Liability
A provider that performs the check correctly is not liable for funds sent to an unintended payee because of an incorrect identifier. If it fails to perform the check and that leads to a defective payment, it must refund the payer without delay. So testing and logging the check is a financial control, not only a feature.
Engineering checklist
- Log every check, its inputs and its outcome, tied to the payment.
- Test close-match and mismatch paths, not only the happy path.
- Keep response times low, because the check sits inside a customer flow that must complete in seconds.
- Protect the check endpoint against enumeration, since it confirms whether a name matches an account.
Quick check
Can a customer skip the payee check?
Consumers cannot opt out in the text described here. Business users sending packaged payments can opt out and opt back in at any time.
Does the provider pay if the payee check was done correctly and the IBAN was wrong?
No. A provider that performs the check correctly is not liable for funds sent to an unintended payee because of an incorrect identifier.
Sources
Last reviewed: 19 October 2026.
