The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has published its follow-up consultation for Confirmation of Payee (CoP) – a tool to protect people from Authorised Push Payment (APP) scams and prevent payments being accidentally sent to the wrong account.

At the end of 2018, the PSR opened its initial consultation seeking views on a proposal to give a general direction for all payment service providers to implement CoP. There was overall support for the proposal with feedback on its design and proposed deadlines.

Having reviewed this feedback and considered the best approach, this latest consultation sets out a revised proposal alongside the legal text of the proposed direction.

The PSR proposes giving a specific direction to members of the six largest banking groups in the UK, who are involved in around 90 per cent of bank transfers, to fully implement CoP by 31 March 2020.

The regulator expects the remaining payment service providers to bring in this protection at the earliest opportunity, and will keep this under review.

The regulator has already set out a number of initiatives for the industry to stop this fraud from happening, including a voluntary industry code, developed by the industry and consumer groups, and due to be implemented from 28 May.

Chris Hemsley, co-managing director of the PSR, said that implementation of CoP needs to be done in the right way if it is going to help protect people from APP scams and help stop payments being sent to the wrong account.

“This is why we have updated our plans and focussed our proposed direction so that more people start to benefit from this protection sooner.”

The PSR’s latest consultation closes on 5 June.

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