NBS: Instant Payments and Payee Verification Available to All as of 9 October

Bratislava, 12 October (TASR) - Instant payments within ten seconds have been available as of Thursday (9 October) to clients of all eurozone banks offering standard SEPA transfers in euros, the Slovak central bank (NBS) reported earlier this week. According to NBS, instant payments aren't entirely new in Slovakia, as its three largest banks – Slovenska sporitelna, Tatra banka and VUB banka – have been offering them since February 2022. Other banks have gradually joined in, and as of October of this year, the service is being provided by all banks in Slovakia. To make payments safer, the new legislation introduces a payee verification service that banks are required to provide as of 9 October for all standard and instant SEPA payments free of charge. Entering a payment via internet banking or a mobile app will thus require not only the account number (IBAN), but also the payee's name or business name. "The payee's bank will immediately verify whether the name and account number match, and the payer will receive the verification result within five seconds, without slowing down the processing of the payment," NBS explained. If the name and number don't match completely, the system will suggest the correct name. If there's no match, payers can either confirm the payment at their own risk or cancel it and check the details. "Therefore, we recommend that payment details should always be checked by payees before confirming a transaction," stressed the central bank, adding that the new service comes in handy in real life situations, such as fraud prevention. "If someone sends you an account number while providing a false name, the system will warn you that the name and account don't match. If you proceed anyway, you do so at your own risk. But it's likely that suspect people will have to provide their real names," stated NBS. The system also provides protection against typing errors when entering the IBAN. The same goes for wrong spelling or diacritics, as the system will recognise a near match, so the payment can be confirmed without any problems, noted NBS. jrg/df