New Confirmation of Payee technology has prevented more than 10,000 payments going to accounts listed on the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange.
The Australian Banking Association (ABA) said that the Confirmation of Payee process had been used more than 100 million times since it was launched by banks in July 2025.
The process adds another layer of fraud protection by allowing customers to confirm if the account name, BSB and account number match the details held by the recipient bank before confirming a transaction.
ABA CEO Simon Birmingham said one bank had reported that more than 450,000 payments were abandoned by customers after receiving a ‘no match’ result.
“More than 10,000 of those abandoned payments were going to accounts listed on the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange, highlighting the role Confirmation of Payee is already playing in helping customers avoid potential scams,” he said.
Mr Birmingham said banks had invested $100 million in the scam-fighting technology.
“Confirmation of Payee has already helped thousands of banking customers avoid succumbing to the trickery and deception of scammers,” Mr Birmingham said.
“This technology is doing its job. It’s saving customers money by warning them that they could be about to send money to a dodgy scam account.”
How it works
The Confirmation of Payee service activates when a customer makes a first-time payment using a BSB and account number. After entering the account name, and before making a payment, a matching service checks whether the information matches the recipient’s bank data.
- If the details match, the account name will be displayed for confirmation.
- If there’s a close match (e.g. “John Smyth” instead of “John Smith”), the customer will see the account name and can confirm if it’s correct.
- For individual accounts with no match, the customer will be shown a warning, and the account name won’t be shown to help protect privacy.
- For business and government accounts, the account name may still be shown regardless of the match outcome.
Using that information, the customer can then decide if they want to go ahead and make the payment, pause and check the details with the intended recipient, or stop the payment altogether.
