To follow EU regulations on instant transfers and make your payments safer by reducing the risk of fraud, we will make some changes to payment initiation and execution as of October 5, 2025. We will introduce Verification of Payee service and instant payment limits.
Verification of Payee service
The Verification of Payee service is designed to check beneficiary name prior to approving and executing a payment.
How will it work?
When you initiate intra-bank or European payment (instant and SEPA), the system will compare the name of the beneficiary provided by you and the name held by the beneficiary’s payment service provider.
After verifying the beneficiary's name, you will see one of four messages on your device screen:
- Beneficiary's name and the account match. You will receive confirmation that the beneficiary's name or legal entity name matches.
- Beneficiary's name and the account partially match. This means that the name of the payee or the name of the legal entity does not exactly match the details you entered. In this case, we will provide you with the correct name of the account holder. If you think the details are incorrect, we advise you to check the details with the payee and not to approve the payment.
- Beneficiary’s name and the account do not match. We will inform that the details you have provided do not match the beneficiary to whom you wish to transfer funds. In this case, we advise you not to confirm the transfer and to check the name and account number of the beneficiary before making the payment.
- Beneficiary’s name could not be verified. We will notify you if the Verification of Payee service is unavailable at the time of checking or if there is another issue causing the failure.
Please note that if the details you provide at the time of initiating a payment and the details held by the payee's payment service provider do not match or partially match, you will be able to authorize the payment, but you will risk not recovering the funds if the payment is sent to the wrong beneficiary.
We recommend that you do not approve a payment if the beneficiary's name does not match, is partially matching or cannot be verified and you are not sure that you are paying to the correct beneficiary. When verifying payment details, it is important to contact the payee on a reliable telephone number or email address.
F.A.Q.
The answers below are valid from 5 October 2025.
Verification of Payee
Verification of Payee, to be introduced on October 5, 2025, aims to give customers greater confidence when making payments, to ensure that they are paying the correct beneficiary. SEB is introducing this service to help protect against fraud when people are tricked into sending money to fraudsters, pretending to be people or company they are not. It will also help avoid simple mistakes like misspelled beneficiary’s name or wrong beneficiary’s account. Finally, this service is mandated by the EU Instant Payment Regulation, so all banks in the eurozone area will need to comply with it and offer the service to their customers.
Verification of Payee will be provided for intra-bank or European payment (instant and SEPA) to eurozone countries.
This service is free of charge for all customers.
Verification of Payee, when introduced, will be available in internet bank, SEB mobile app, bank branches as well as in SEB Baltic Gateway channel.
If you are paying to a private person, please use their first name and last name. If you are paying to a legal person, please use the legal or business name. You may need to contact the beneficiary to obtain the correct name held on the account.
- Payments made to you
Make sure the name you provide to payers or use on your invoices matches the name registered to your bank account. - Payments you make
It is important that you review and verify the beneficiary's information in your accounting systems. The beneficiary’s name must match the name held by the beneficiary's bank.
Only business customers who are uploading payments via file in internet bank or SEB Baltic Gateway channel may opt-out from the Verification of Payee service.
The payment service provider (usually the bank) of the beneficiary will check, if the name sent to them for the Verification of Payee check is a match. The beneficiary’s bank will send their response to SEB, and this will be shown to you before confirming the payment.
We will show you the result in a few seconds after you provide beneficiary’s name and account number.
This means that the beneficiary’s name does not exactly match what you have entered. You will be provided with an account holder’s name, so please check if the provided name is correct. If it doesn’t look right, or you’re not sure, do not confirm the payment and contact the beneficiary to check their details.
If you receive a message that the beneficiary's name and the account do not match, first check if you have entered the details correctly. If you have, we advise you to contact the beneficiary to obtain the correct account holder’s name and account number before making any payments. If, after checking with the beneficiary, they inform you that the details are correct, we recommend that you request beneficiary to contact their bank to confirm that the bank account details are correct.
If the payment details still don’t come back as a match when using the service, it could indicate a scam. Fraudsters will attempt to trick you into sending money by posing as an individual or company that you trust, such as your bank or a trusted supplier. To help you avoid this, you should carefully consider whether the payment request is genuine, or you may lose your money.
This means that the service is unavailable at the time of checking or there is another possible reason to request failure. We advise you to try later. If the situation continues despite many attempts, we advise you to contact beneficiary you are trying to pay, to check with their bank what might be the reason for this response.
When you are initiating single payment, it is mandatory to perform the Verification of Payee check. You can always proceed with the payment, independent of the result.
If you are a business customer sending multiple payment transactions in one file, you will have the option to opt-out from the service.
No. Only beneficiary’s name can be checked.
No. Beneficiary’s bank can reject payment due to incorrect beneficiary’s name or any other reasons.
Clients which use SEB Baltic Gateway service will be informed individually.
The Verification of Payee service will be provided when standing order agreement is created. Verification of Payee will not be repeated when standing order payments are executed.
The service will not be provided when beneficiary’s name is not entered by payer (for example, in e-invoice payment or payment’s using mobile phone number).
Instant payment limits
You will be able to set daily or one payment limit for instant payments. Default EUR 15 000 limit will be applied for one instant payment till you set your own limit. If European payment’s amount is below that limit and beneficiary’s payment service provider accept instant payment, it will be executed as instant payment. When limit is exceeded, you will be able to increase your instant payment limit or choose between SEPA and European express payment.
Your instant payment limit cannot exceed your general internet bank limit. If it does, then payment cannot be confirmed.
Yes. You can adjust your instant payment limits at any time, as often as needed, without requiring bank approval.
There is no amount limitation.
No. The limit applies only to outgoing instant payments. Incoming instant payments do not affect it.
You can manage your instant payment limits in internet bank and by visiting bank branch.
The limit is customer-based. If you have multiple accounts, the same type of limit (daily or per transaction) applies across all of them.
No. The limit is customer-based, so all users will share the same instant payment limit setup.
No. In case you will not set your instant payment limit, bank will apply default EUR 15 000 limit per one instant payment. You can change default limit at any time.
This is a regulatory requirement under the Instant Payments Regulation. It allows you to choose which payments to execute as instant.
A default limit of EUR 15 000 per payment will apply. Payments above this amount will be processed as SEPA or European express payments.
Instant payment execution in 10 seconds
Any time when an instant payment will require additional checks or for some other reason it will not be possible to execute it in 10 seconds, we will reject that payment and refund money back to your account. You will be able to give us instructions to automatically repeat that payment as SEPA payment while initiating instant payment.
You should ask beneficiary to contact their payment service provider and clarify regarding payment status.
Yes, fee will be returned.
No, rejected instant payments will not be counted in the number of payments used within the service plan.
