Bank penalised after missing deadline for Confirmation of Payee checks, affecting billions in payments
Bank of Ireland UK (BOIUK) has been fined £3.78 million by the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) for failing to introduce a key name-checking safeguard for payees by the required deadline.
The regulator found that the bank did not implement the ability to send Confirmation of Payee (CoP) requests until 14 months after the cut-off date. During that period, more than 1.14 million new payees were set up without the protection of CoP checks, on transactions totalling about £6.9 billion.
The PSR had directed BOIUK to have systems in place to both send and receive CoP requests by Oct. 31, 2023. CoP is designed to let customers verify that the account name they are paying matches the intended recipient, and is viewed by regulators as an important control against fraud and misdirected transfers.
The requirement for Group 1 payment service providers was confirmed in October 2022, giving firms a year to comply. BOIUK was the final provider in this group to meet the standard.
“Confirmation of Payee is a vital tool to combat fraud and misdirected payments, giving people confidence that their money is going exactly where they intend,” said David Geale (pictured right), managing director at the Payment Systems Regulator.
“Bank of Ireland UK had plenty of time to put the system in place, missing the deadline by more than a year put its customers at increased risk of fraud.
“Where we see firms failing to comply with the Confirmation of Payee requirements and leaving customers without this critical protection, we will use our powers to intervene to make sure this important direction is followed.”
In a statement, the bank acknowledged the failings and highlighted changes made since.
“Bank of Ireland UK fully acknowledges and sincerely apologises for the delay in implementing send requests for confirmation of payee, which has been in place for all customers since January 2025,” said a spokesperson at Bank of Ireland UK.
“The bank takes its regulatory obligations extremely seriously and regrets that this issue arose. Protecting customers from financial harm is of critical importance to us and we are investing more than ever to do this.
“From enhanced monitoring, the use of AI and strengthening our controls, we are continually improving our systems and processes to stay ahead of emerging threats and ensure customers can bank with confidence.”
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