EPC Publishes Verification of Payee Version 2.0
The European Payments Council released updated matching recommendations for payee name checks across the Single Euro Payments Area.
Updated on Nov. 4, 2026 in Financial Services
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The European Payments Council published version 2.0 of its Verification of Payee matching recommendations, following a public consultation that ran from 1 April 2026 to 30 June 2026. The update describes how responding payment service providers compare payee names to determine whether a match, close match, or no match applies.
Why it matters
The EPC says the recommendations aim to support more consistent and user-friendly VOP implementations across the market. They also seek to reduce unnecessary no match or close match responses that could add friction to payment initiation.
The recommendations follow a public consultation running from 1 April 2026 to 30 June 2026, and VOP became mandatory for PSPs in the Single Euro Payments Area on 9 October 2025. The source does not provide the number of consultation responses or any measured change in no match or close match rates.
The players
European Payments Council (EPC)
The European Payments Council is the decision-making and coordination body for the European payments industry, which develops the scheme rulebooks that govern SEPA payment services.
The details
The recommendations clarify that inter-PSP API messages must generally use a limited Latin character set encoded in UTF-8, with guidance for character conversion and names containing characters outside that set. Matching can account for spelling mistakes, transposed letters, initials, phonetic variations, and commonly accepted abbreviations, and for legal entities, commercial names may be considered alongside registered legal names.
Timeline
9 October 2025: VOP became mandatory for payment service providers within the Single Euro Payments Area.
1 April 2026 to 30 June 2026: Public consultation on the VOP scheme rulebook changes.
4 November 2026: The EPC published VOP matching recommendations version 2.0.
Market Landscape
The update refines the Verification of Payee framework that became mandatory across the Single Euro Payments Area on 9 October 2025, under the EU Instant Payments Regulation. It moves the scheme from initial compliance toward tuning how payee name matching works in practice.
Payment service providers in the Single Euro Payments Area must apply VOP checks when users send transfers, so the updated matching rules may affect whether payees receive a match, close match, or no match response. Clearer handling of abbreviations and spelling variations could reduce unnecessary friction when initiating payments.
The takeaway
Payers using SEPA transfers may see fewer unnecessary mismatch warnings as payee name matching accounts for abbreviations and minor spelling differences. Checking that the payee name matches the registered or commercial name still helps avoid errors.
Further reading
Explore more Financial Services coverage for context on how payment verification rules are shaping the sector.
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