In an era of increasingly sophisticated financial fraud, authorized push payment (APP) scams have emerged as a costly and damaging threat. Victims are tricked into initiating payments to fraudsters, often believing they are paying a legitimate recipient. In response, The Verification Of Payee (VOP) scheme is introduced with a set of inter-payment service provider (PSP) rules, practices and standards in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) – a critical new requirement for all financial institutions in the Euro Zone.
At IBS, we believe this is more than a compliance exercise — it’s a strategic opportunity to rebuild trust in digital payments.
The Challenge: APP Fraud and Rising Pressure on Banks
APP fraud is unique in its impact — it’s the payer, not the bank, who authorizes the transaction. Traditional fraud detection systems often fail to catch these schemes because no account is being hacked and no credentials are being stolen.
This has prompted regulators to take action:
- VoP is mandatory for many types of payments, especially peer-to-peer and business payments.
- Banks are bearing increased liability if they fail to properly inform the customer of a mismatch.
- Regulatory scrutiny will focus not just on outcomes, but on the ability to explain decisions and provide audit trails.
In short: VoP is not optional, and handling it correctly requires both technical capability and real-time intelligence.
The Legatus Solution: VoP Built-In, Built Right
Legatus now includes a full-featured Verification of Payee module and it is designed to meet — and exceed — any future requirements of upcoming PSR/PSD3:
- Sub-millisecond lookup engine for incoming VoP API requests
- Sophisticated fuzzy matching with explainable logic
- Built-in audit logging for every request
- VoP orchestration when your customer initiates the payment
- Easily integrated with your digital banking backend
- Customer consent and override handling for scoring and compliance
- Configurable VoP policies based on amount, risk level, or customer profile
- Consent logging with timestamp, context, and customer input
- Dashboards to track match rates, override behavior, and fraud outcomes
- GDPR-ready architecture with data minimization
- Full control over retention policies and regulator-ready reporting
- Support for evolving standards (SEPA API spec, national VoP schemes)
Legatus is a real-time decision management platform built to adapt as regulation — and fraud — evolve. By embedding VoP directly into the risk scoring, consent management, and audit flow, we close the gap between compliance and protection.
Whether you are:
- A payer bank needing to verify payees in milliseconds, or
- A receiving institution handling incoming requests from across Europe,
Legatus makes VoP implementation fast, secure, and future-proof.
Ready to Comply, Ready to Lead
VoP is here. Institutions that delay will face not only regulatory fines, but also reputation risk and customer dissatisfaction. With Legatus, you’re not just compliant — you’re ahead of the curve.