Payments, certainty & security

When it comes to payments, certainty is critical.

For corporations embracing the digital economy, the speed and convenience of the modern payments experience has changed the way they do business. But until now, making modern payments has relied on old-fashioned trust.

When businesses made large-scale digital payments, they took for granted they were paying into the correct account — not because they personally knew who the details belonged to, but because they trusted what they had been told.

This confidence came from the information presented on the screen and from prior experience; once they had successfully made a payment to someone, they felt reassured that future payments under similar circumstances would go through just as smoothly.

But unfortunately, over time, bad actors learned to take advantage of that trust. ANZ works to help ensure customers are educated about the risks of email fraud and compromise, which commonly include payments being made to parties misrepresenting their identity.

Sadly, it still happens — and in the 2024 financial year alone, $A84 million in losses to business email compromise was recorded by the Australian government’s cybercrime reporting tool.

But the sector is working to improve security, and ensure business can have not just trust, but greater certainty when they make payments online. The latest step is the introduction of the confirmation of payee service — which confirms the identity of the payee as part of the payment process.

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Validation

Confirmation of Payee provides users with validation that when they're making a payment, they're actually paying the person they intend to.

The best part is it shouldn't really change the payment experience a great deal. ANZ has taken steps to integrate this service into our payments process in a user-friendly manner, using the same payments workflow our customers are used to.

Now, when customers type in the details of their intended payee (BSB and account number or PayID), they’ll receive verification there and then that they’re paying who they want to pay.

Plus, where a business has beneficiaries stored in an address book, we've made that situation safer for customers, too. Now, when they set up a standard payment, users can get confirmation of the payee at that time and know when they make future payments, those are more certain as well.

The payment industry has been grappling with the balance between speed and security for some time now. Taking an extra few seconds to positively validate you're paying who you thought you were paying isn't a great impost on the process — and well worth it for the peace of mind that comes with increased certainty.

Head start

ANZ has had a head start on many of our domestic competitors thanks to our experience with the tool in New Zealand. Those customers appreciate the greater certainty it brings to their payment experience, and we know that there's pent up demand for it in Australia.

In July, ANZ went live with confirmation of payee for some customers, and the initial feedback has been positive. At present this service is available to institutional customers in Australia only, and will be expanding to other markets soon. Later in 2025, we’ll be launching a service to help customers integrate this feature directly into their own payroll systems. We expect Confirmation of Payee will be received as another welcome feature in ANZ’s toolkit, helping to keep our customers safe and secure. 

Leigh Mahoney is Head of Wholesale Digital at ANZ