Confirmation of Payee | Credit Canary Connect

Overview

What is Confirmation of Payee?

Confirmation of Payee (CoP) is a name-checking service operated by Pay.UK that verifies whether the name given by a payer matches the name on the payee's account before a payment is made. It's a critical safeguard against authorised push payment (APP) fraud, misdirected payments and social engineering scams.

The service is mandated by the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) for the UK's largest payment service providers and is increasingly adopted across the broader payments ecosystem. Through Credit Canary, you can access CoP via a single API call — no direct integration with Pay.UK required.

We've also mapped every active UK sort code to its owning bank, adding an extra layer of validation before your payment is even submitted.

99%+

Coverage

UK bank accounts

<1s

Latency

Typical API response

3

Response Types

Match, close match, no match

Credit Canary Console — Confirmation of Payee

CoP Result Summary

Search ID: COP-2026-04-001

Date: 02/04/2026

Result

Match

Account Type

Personal

Sort Code

12-34-56

Account No.

****7890

Payee Name

J Smith

Matched Name

John Smith

Request Details

Payee Name GivenJ Smith

Sort Code12-34-56

Account Number12347890

Payment TypeFaster Payment

Bank (from sort code)Barclays Bank UK PLC

Verification Result

Match StatusFull Match

Name on AccountJohn Smith

Account ExistsYes

Name Match Score98%

Sample data — actual results will vary View full report in Console →

What's included

CoP verification at every step

Every search returns a structured JSON response covering these verification data points.

Name Verification

Full name match check
Partial/close match detection
No match identification
Business name verification

Account Validation

Sort code validation
Sort code-to-bank mapping
Account number verification
Account existence check
Account type identification

Response Types

Match — name confirmed
Close Match — similar name found
No Match — name doesn't match
Account not found handling

Fraud Prevention

APP fraud prevention
Misdirected payment protection
Social engineering defence
PSR compliance support

Pricing

Transparent, volume-based pricing

Simple per-search pricing that gets cheaper the more you use. No hidden fees.

Starting from

£0.25 /per search

ex VAT · Volume discounts available

Volume Discounts

Higher volumes = lower unit cost. We'll quote based on your expected usage.

Setup Fee

One-time setup fee covers integration, testing and go-live support.

Ongoing Management

Includes platform access, support and monitoring. Minimums apply.

No SHARE membership required

CoP is available to any business. Unlike Call Report, there's no SHARE membership requirement — just connect and start verifying payee names immediately.

All prices ex VAT. Minimums apply. Contact us for a tailored quote.

Why Credit Canary

Built for payments teams

Not just another data pipe. Credit Canary gives you the tools to act on the data, not just receive it.

API-First Integration

Clean, RESTful API with structured JSON responses. Integrate once and verify payee names before every payment. Full documentation and sandbox environment included.

Workflow Ready

Embed CoP checks directly into your payment workflows. Automate name verification at the point of payment initiation — no manual intervention needed.

Console Access

Run individual CoP checks through the Credit Canary Console. Perfect for manual payment processing, compliance review, or when your operations team needs a quick verification.

APP Fraud Protection — a regulatory requirement

The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) mandates CoP for the UK's largest payment service providers. Even if you're not directly mandated, running CoP checks before outbound payments demonstrates due diligence and protects your customers from authorised push payment scams.

Sort code mapping — added validity on every check

We've mapped all active UK sort codes to their owning banks, giving you an extra layer of validation before the CoP request is even sent. If a sort code is inactive or doesn't belong to the bank the payer expects, you'll know immediately — catching errors and potential fraud earlier in the payment flow.

Common questions

Frequently asked questions

Developer ready

Simple, clean API responses

Structured JSON you can parse, store and act on immediately. No XML. No SOAP. No surprises.

GET /v1/payments/confirmation-of-payee
# Response — Confirmation of Payee
{
  "product": "confirmation_of_payee",
  "reference": "COP-2026-04-001",
  "status": "completed",
  "result": {
    "match_status": "match",
    "name_on_account": "John Smith",
    "account_exists": true,
    "match_score": 98
  },
  "sort_code_lookup": {
    "sort_code": "123456",
    "bank_name": "Barclays Bank UK PLC",
    "active": true
  },
  "request": {
    "payee_name": "J Smith",
    "sort_code": "123456",
    "account_number": "12347890"
  }
}

Ready to connect?

Book a 30-minute demo and we'll walk you through the integrations that matter most for your business — standalone or combined.

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