The payment company Australian Payments Plus (AP+) and the Australian Banking Association (ABA) announced the completion of the development of key design elements of the new Confirmation of Payee system.
As is noted in an AP+ release, the banking sector has allocated A$100 million to develop this anti-fraud system. The service will be integrated with the fast payments platform New Payments Platform (NPP) and will allow payers to confirm the correctness of the recipient’s name, BSB and account number before making a payment.
The system is part of the Scam-Safe Accord, a set of measures by the banking sector to protect Australians’ funds from fraud.
Key features of the system include:
- a centralized data matching service that will match names based on the account data provided by the recipient’s financial institution, comparing it to the account name entered by the payer;
- display of the recipient’s name, if the result of matching names shows a match or a close match, and for accounts with several owners, only the name of the person specified by the payer will be displayed, with a mark on the presence of other owners (“and others”);
- lack of a centralized database, which would leave account details with the relevant financial institution or service provider.
AP+ engaged more than 50 community groups for feedback on the system’s development. SWIFT was also engaged to create and manage a central data matching service.
The introduction of the service is planned in stages, with the gradual development and testing of centralized capabilities during 2024. The feature is expected to be ready for implementation by Australian banks in early 2025.
