Payer Name Verification - FAQs
- What is Payer Name Verification?
- How does Payer Name Verification work?
- What happens if the payer's account details do not match the bank's records?
- Does the payer get notified if their account details do not match?
- Who do we use to do the Payer Name Verification check?
- Does the name need to be a complete match to the bank details?
- What counts as a Partial Match?
- What is the benefit of Payer Name Verification for Merchants?
- Will Payer Name Verification be available for Custom Integrators?
- Does Payer Name Verification apply to every UK payer?
- How does Payer Name Verification work with Modulus checking?
What is Payer Name Verification?
Payer Name Verification (PNV) is a feature that verifies if the payer's account number and name match the account details that their bank has on record. This process is managed by an external provider, PayPoint. The goal of PNV is to reduce fraudulent activities, such as unauthorized use of bank accounts, by ensuring that the payment is initiated by the legitimate account owner.
How does Payer Name Verification work?
When a payer is going through a billing request flow (e.g., on our hosted payment pages), the PNV feature checks if the entered account details match the details the bank has on record. If there's a mismatch, the payer will be prevented from setting up a mandate. They will receive an error and need to correct the details before they can proceed.
What happens if the payer's account details do not match the bank's records?
If the payer's account details don't match the bank's records, they will be prevented from setting up a mandate. An error message will be displayed, indicating that the details need to be corrected before they can proceed with the payment.
Does the payer get notified if their account details do not match?
Yes, if the payer's account details do not match the bank's records, they will receive an error message. This error will inform them that they need to correct their account details before they can proceed with setting up a mandate.
Who do we use to do the Payer Name Verification check?
The PNV process is managed by an external provider called PayPoint. They handle the verification process by cross-checking the payer's account details with the bank's records.
What is the benefit of Payer Name Verification for Merchants?
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Reduction of Fraudulent Activities: PNV significantly reduces the risk of fraudulent activities by verifying that the payer's account number and name match the bank's records. This ensures that payments are initiated by the legitimate account owner, thus preventing unauthorized use of bank accounts.
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Reducing Merchant Losses due to Chargebacks: By reducing fraudulent activities and chargebacks, PNV can help protect merchants' revenue. In the past, merchants have experienced significant revenue loss due to lack of name/account number verification which have allowed attackers to abuse chargebacks. “Payer claims they haven’t provided authority to take payment” is one of the most common chargeback reasons, some of which could be fraudulent.
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Enhanced Trust and Security: The implementation of PNV can boost customer/payer confidence in the security of transactions, as it adds an extra layer of verification. This can enhance the reputation of merchants and increase customer trust in their payment processes.
Will Payer Name Verification be available for Custom Integrators?
Yes - We have implemented Payer Name Verification in two ways for Customer Integrators. Firstly, new integrators using the Billing Request API will have Payer Name Verification automatically applied to the creation of new bank accounts (and therefore will receive an error if the details don’t match). Secondly, we will be implementing it into the bank detail lookup endpoint, which means custom integrators will be able to opt to have more control when ‘checking’ the bank account details using Payer Name Verification to determine a Match Result if desired. If using Billing Requests API, please get in touch at api@gocardless.com to opt in so we can activate it on your organisation.
Does Payer Name Verification apply to every UK payer that goes through GC hosted pages?
Whilst we attempt to do a Payer Name Verification check on every bank account, there are some situations in which we will let payers create mandates without the check. This is to ensure your conversion rates remain high (e.g. the number of payers able to create mandates). These situations are generally limited to when a bank takes too long to respond to a request to run the verification (or their API is down altogether!). There are also some smaller banks that do not yet support Payer Name Verification.
How does Payer Name Verification work with Modulus checking?
Modulus checking is a procedure for validating a sort code and account number combination in the UK. It's useful for Bacs Direct Debit as it confirms that the sort code and account number could be a valid combination.
Modulus checking will happen automatically and occur prior to submitting details for Payer Name Verification checks. This will occur for all experiences, and the error that occurs will reflect whether the bank account setup failed due to invalid sort code and account number combinations (Modulus check) or name mismatches (Payer Name Verification).