Confirmation of Payee

Confirmation of Payee is an industry-wide service that adds a layer of protection for payments to a BSB and account number. It checks the account name, BSB and account number you’ve entered against the details held by the recipient’s bank and lets you know whether it’s a match. This can help you make informed decisions before you make a payment, reducing the risk of scams and mistaken payments.

Confirmation of Payee is an initiative of Australian Payments Plus, the same organisation that also provides trusted payment services like BPAY, Osko, eftpos, PayID and PayTo.

You don’t need to do anything. Confirmation of Payee will be available in Internet banking and the BCU Bank app later this year. When you make a payment to a BSB and account number, or edit a payee’s BSB and account number, you will be given the match result before you make a payment.

When you make a payment to a BSB and account number, Confirmation of Payee checks the details you enter against the name, BSB and account number held by the recipient’s bank and gives you a match outcome. That helps you decide what you want to do next – and gives you more confidence that the money you’re paying is going to the right account.

Confirmation of Payee checks the account name, BSB and account number you’ve entered against the details held by the recipient’s bank to let you know whether it’s a match or a close match – or if the details don’t match at all. All Confirmation of Payee information is passed securely between financial institutions to ensure your data remains safe.

If you are receiving money into a personal account, the person who’s paying you will be shown the account name only if the name they have entered is a match or a close match. If any of these details are incorrect, the name will not be shown to protect your privacy.

If you’re a business or government organisation account that’s receiving a payment, the name of your account will be shown to the payer, regardless of whether it’s a match or not.

Confirmation of Payee will check account details for all first-time and future dated payments set up to a new BSB and account number, or when you make changes to existing payees. Additional checks may be made depending on the financial institution.

Account match means the details you’ve entered match the bank records of the intended recipient.

Close match means the details you’ve entered closely match the bank records of the intended recipient.

No match means that the details you entered do not match the bank records of the intended recipient.

Yes. Confirmation of Payee will never stop you from completing a payment. We encourage you to be scam aware and always take steps to make sure you know who you are paying, as scams or mistaken payments may be difficult to retrieve.

If you want to get paid without any confusion or potential delays, you should share the name, BSB and account number for your bank account. This is especially important if you’re a business with an account name that differs from the name you’re using to take a payment; for instance, if you have a different trading name for a particular part of your business.

Names with special characters, like apostrophes (‘), will still match without being entered. For example, enter “O’Brien” as “O Brien” or “Obrien”. Or an account name with an ampersand (&) such as Paper & Pen can be entered as Paper Pen.

If the name you're trying to enter exceeds a character limit in your online banking, let the recipient know and consider how best to proceed by contacting us on 1300 228 228.

If you enter the wrong account details, you can end up sending your money to the wrong recipient. This can be difficult and time-consuming to resolve, which is why it’s important to check the accuracy of the details you enter before you send your money.

Find out what you should do if you send money to the wrong account.

Eligible customers may request to be opted-out of the Confirmation of Payee service. This means your account name and match outcome will not be displayed to payers and could impact the likelihood of the payer proceeding with the payment. To understand the opt out process and the implications, please contact each of your financial institutions including us on 1300 228 228.

To ensure your name is accurate in the Confirmation of Payee service, please contact each of your financial institutions including us on 1300 228 228.