VOP: The new obligation that changes everything

October 9, 2025 : the VOP (Verification of Payee) has become mandatory throughout the eurozone¹. This regulation now requires checking that the name of the beneficiary corresponds to the IBAN before each SEPA transfer.

Concretely? Your bank automatically interviews the payee's bank to make sure the money is going to the right person. If the name does not match → alert, block, or manual check.

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Why this obligation?

Bank transfer scams will represent 305 billion euros in projected losses by 2027 at the global level². Europe is finally aligning itself with the British model (in place since 2020³) to strengthen payment security.

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Who is concerned?

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All actors who make transfers, regardless of the sector:

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Financial sector: All customer transfers (individuals and businesses)

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Insurance: Claims reimbursements, indemnities, redemptions

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Energy: Refunds, overpayments, energy vouchers

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Automotive: Deposit refunds, vehicle purchases

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E-commerce: Customer refunds

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Any business: Making regular transfers to third parties

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The three limits of the VOP

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1 - An audit that comes at the end of the process

The VOP intervenes at the time the transfer is executed, not before. Consequence: when a problem is detected, the entire file has already been validated internally. This creates cascading blocks and requires teams to manually manage exceptions.

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2 - Incomplete coverage

Not all banks are yet covered by the VOP, in particular some online banks and recent European banking institutions. However, these actors are often favored by fraudsters for their speed in opening accounts and their streamlined controls.

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3 - Only in Europe

The VOP only works for SEPA transfers (eurozone). For international payments outside Europe, no automatic verification is available.

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How can we better protect ourselves?

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Check before the course

Check the IBAN as soon as the bank details are collected, before the validation of the file

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Use Open Banking

Access bank data directly to cover all establishments, including those not covered by the VOP. Open Banking also makes it possible to automatically retrieve the customer's IBAN.

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Adopting a multi-source approach

Cross several verification points (identity, IBAN, history) to detect anomalies

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Automate controls

Limit manual interventions and speed up disbursements for legitimate cases

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sourcing

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¹ European Directive 2024/XX on VOP

² European Banking Authority (EBA), 2025 Report

³ Banque de France, Observatory on the security of payment methods