IBAN and recipient name matching now mandatory for bank transfers

Starting Thursday, banks across the eurozone — including those in Greece — will be required to verify that the recipient’s name matches the IBAN for all bank transfers. If there is a mismatch, the sender must be notified before the transaction proceeds.

This new rule aims to tackle the growing issue of IBAN spoofing, a type of fraud that led to losses of €183 million last year.

According to Kathimerini, until now, banks have asked customers to enter both the recipient’s name and IBAN when making a transfer, but they haven’t checked whether the two actually correspond. As a result, transactions could go through even if the name was incorrect or completely fake.

That changes with the implementation of the new European regulation on Verification of Payee (VoP). Under the new system, the sender’s bank must check with the recipient’s bank to confirm that the name matches the IBAN before completing the payment.

If there’s any discrepancy — whether it’s a minor typo or a completely different name — the bank will alert the sender and ask them to verify the information.

This marks the end of the transition period for the EU’s instant payments regulation, which began on January 9. The change represents a major step toward increased security and transparency in the eurozone’s banking system.