Confirmation of Payee (CoP): how do I find out what name my bank has registered me with?

Eco_Miser

kaMelo said:

I can't help but think people are overthinking this, it's simply about your name. 
Business bank accounts I appreciate could be in a variety of names for different reasons but personal accounts, it's simple.
The bank know you by name, they may also have your initials, titles or whatever else you may consider important, they may also share the ego flattering information on your debit/credit cards but ultimately what matters to the bank regarding CoP is the combination of Forename and Surname along with account no and sort code.
eg, your paying Dr. Joseph William F. Bloggs III (the third).  Just use "Joe/Joseph Bloggs as payee.

We don't need even more regulation insisting financial institutions send us a legal definition of what our own name is.

The trouble comes when you only know the doctor in your example as Bill Bloggs.

WAC125

Some comments on this forum suggest a fundamental misunderstanding of Confirmation of Payee (CoP).  Basically, CoP allows the banks, ostensibly at the 'behest' of the regulator (just think FAA and Boeing 737 Max), to wriggle out of some of their obligations to prevent/pay for fraudulent transactions.  That's fine in so far as it makes people more careful, but for it ALSO to provide those same people with added protection against fraud it MUST be properly implemented by the banks.  This they have singularly failed to do - rather, it is in fact a joke on a par with the 'track & trace' fiasco.  So I would advise folk not to stop first sending just a £1.
Who actually knows what the EXACT name of even their own account is, or where/how they can find it?  I couldn't even get an exact match when transferring money between my own accounts!!!  Having been addressed by the bank FOUR different ways (including as a comma...) I had assumed the most logical would be the name on the debit card - after all, don't all the online payment systems say 'enter name EXACTLY as on card'?  WRONG.  But when I contacted the bank to find out the name/where it appeared, I was accused of wasting their precious time during an epidemic!  In fact, they tried to brush me off with 'really didn't matter that much', until I pointed out that it potentially transferred liability from the bank to me.  This leads me to conclude that the banks implementation of CoP is little more than a minimalist nod to the regulator by way of compliance, while secretly being delighted at having been given the opportunity, on a plate, to lay greater responsibility for fraud at the feet of the customer.  How else can one explain a customer having to accept 'responsibility' for making payments to National Savings or else not make the payment, simply because of the inadequacies of the bank's systems?  Where is the regulator?  Noticeable only by total/ineffectual absence - perhaps busy dreaming up the next requirement for the banks to send millions of near useless bits of paper to customers? 

T'was ever thus - remember 2008? - and evermore shall be so......

RG2015

CoP works really well for me for all of the major banks. It is a shame that the newer banks such as Virgin Money and building societies with sort code and 8 digit account numbers don’t currently work.

colsten

The name check was implemented in response to demands by customers, who had the vocal support of prominent consumer organisations / pressure groups. I do agree that customers are now assuming an even larger liability for their own actions when setting up payees, but anyone who was thinking this through should have seen it coming.

I am also sure that if anyone has an affordable solution to working out a foolproof process to figuring out the name of an account, they would be paid handsomely by the banks for this invention.

tehone

Just for info if its useful to someone, and I've not seen it mentioned on the thread yet

I set up a payment to a J Smith (partly because I didn't know their actual first name - eg. Jim, James, Jimmy, etc)

My bank helpfully responded with when doing the CoP that did I mean James Smith.

Its possible that this was because as it happened both banks (mine and the recipients) were the same bank (Santander)

RG2015

tehone said:

Just for info if its useful to someone, and I've not seen it mentioned on the thread yet

I set up a payment to a J Smith (partly because I didn't know their actual first name - eg. Jim, James, Jimmy, etc)

My bank helpfully responded with when doing the CoP that did I mean James Smith.

Its possible that this was because as it happened both banks (mine and the recipients) were the same bank (Santander)

I was setting up an SO from NatWest account to my HSBC account and put in my first name and surname and it said it was a close match. It then displayed my full name with my three forenames and my surname and asked if this was what I meant.