The National Payments Platform (NPP), which was developed and is currently operated by Swift in Australia, will be used to deliver the new service, together with standardized APIs and a centralized account matching service that is overseen by AP+.

Swift's choice expands on its strengths in artificial intelligence and data services, such as Payment Pre-validation for cross-border payments, which currently removes the hassle of foreign payments through upfront account verification.

"The development of an industry-wide Confirmation of Payee service will play an important role in reducing certain types of scams that result in misdirection of a payment to the wrong account as well as avoid mistaken payments being made to incorrect account numbers," says Adrian Lovney, chief payment and schemes officer at AP+. As part of a coordinated effort to fight fraud and scams, AP+ is dedicated to collaborating with the sector to better safeguard businesses and customers. Swift was the obvious choice to collaborate with us on creating this significant service, strengthening the solid alliance we have had in place for a number of years.

The new service's features will be gradually developed and tested throughout 2024, enabling financial institutions to begin integrating it into their banking channels in 2025.