sending money to icorrect payee

eskbanker

But the Confirmation of Payee mechanism works on the basis of submitting sort code/account number/name via an API and receiving back one of a very simple range of options (basically match, partial fuzzy match or mismatch) - it doesn't provide any sort of facility for obtaining different account numbers for the same person.

Yorkshirerover

Thanks AmityNeon for understanding the problem...your reasoning is what I also believed...but the bank details supplied by me to create this new payee were correct

Only the bank (Nationwide)knew of the incorrect details so it seems fair to say thats where the blame lies....although they wont admit to it

sheramber

How did Nationwide know the account details for an HSBC account?

wmb194

Is it a large company that you were trying pay? Could it be that Nationwide used details on its system? E.g., IIRC, the way with some banks you can select to pay, say, Barclaycard and it will pre-fill the sort code and account number?

AmityNeon

Yorkshirerover said:

Just to recap Nationwide sent this money to an account where the title was correct but the sort code and acc no were different to that inputted....Neither I or the payee provided or even knew  these details....only after checking did I find out that the sort code belonged to a local bank and then the payee said that they once had an account with that bank but closed because of poor service

So to clarify, which of the below is true:

• #1 - The incorrect account does not belong to your intended payee and probably isn't even closed; your intended payee just coincidentally happened to bank with HSBC.
• #2 - You informed your intended payee of the incorrect payee details (as obtained from Nationwide), and your intended payee confirmed that this was their previously held account, which was closed months ago?

It is imperative that accurate and detailed facts are established to avoid jumping to the wrong conclusions.

Did you use the app to set up the payee? Or online banking?

Have you ever paid your intended payee in the past using different bank details?

HiggiHiggins

Yorkshirerover said:

Who but the bank could have put this information into the payment instruction    it all sounds incredible but I am computer literate and worked with computer systems for many years in my employment....and computer programmes can be badly written

Who but the bank? I would say YOU. I’m also with Nationwide here.

Programmes may well be badly written but they aren’t given the ability to gain information that you or the bank doesn’t have. 

So nationwide for no reason and without having the account details paid a closed account. The account happens to be a local branch of another bank that the payee happened to have an account at but closed it and the account number matched his? Very coincidental. You’ve then made a new payee with the same details as before and made a second payment, why would you risk this with what “happened” before. 

razord

Did you enter a phone number for the person you sent the money to?

I'm wondering if you accidentally used the PAYM service which matched the phone number to the old bank details?

penners324

As said earlier, I suggest you find the email you used to set up the payee.

What your claiming is utterly impossible 

Yorkshirerover

The question to ask is surely how did Nationwide get the details to pay into the wrong account ??...Not from me...when I set the correct payee  again I checked the detail before sending payment which I will do now every time
The original instructions were checked and found to be correct...you cannot get 16 digits wrong and then find out it refers to a local bank 
No phone nos involved
A badly written programme can be biased to the payees name and treat the sort and account details as secondary

After the payment had been reported as not having arrived....I found out that the sort code belonged to a local bank...after telling my payee this info she confirmed they did once bank with the HSBC...but as it was a long time ago she didnt have the acc no

The only possible way this acc detail was produced is from the Nationwide....remember the payees name was always correct even though the sort and acc nos were not

fwor

When you think about it in data processing terms, it's impossible to imagine how it could have happened in the way you suggest.

When you think about it, the Confirmation of Payee can only work in one way: the sending bank looks at the sort code, figures out which bank is involved and then sends a query to the appropriate bank - how else could it work? So... if you put a sort code in for one bank, it's impossible for a positive result to come back from a different bank (let alone a positive result with accompanying wrong details).

I'm in agreement with others that it has probably happened because of a historical record that you may have had (and forgotten about) when paying this person previously, which you somehow selected inadvertently instead of setting up a new payee.

I don't think you've answered the question, but do you remember going through the process of setting up a new payee twice? The first time for the payment that went to their HSBC account, and the second time to their current account?