Equals Group plc (LON:EQLS), the technology-led international payments group focused on the SME marketplace, today announces that it has joined the Confirmation of Payee (CoP) scheme operated for UK payments.

The CoP scheme, which is administered by Pay.UK, aims to reduce incidences of payments fraud and misdirected payments by enabling the name of a payment recipient (the Payee) to be checked against the bank and account details provided, before a payment is confirmed. This provides more certainty for the sender of funds that their payment is being instructed to the correct payee.

Equals’ participation in the CoP scheme is another key component in the Group’s mission to make payments simpler and more secure for its customers. Joining the CoP scheme complements ongoing work to roll out named account details to payments and expenses customers, leveraging the Group’s connectivity to the UK’s Faster Payments network.

By enrolling with the CoP scheme, Equals becomes only the 4th UK non-bank and the 15th participant to ‘go live’ with this scheme, offering its customers an important additional layer of protection against fraud.

Ian Strafford Taylor, CEO of Equals, said:

“Our decision to join the UK CoP scheme places us at the forefront of our industry and demonstrates our commitment to protecting our customers from avoidable fraud risk by providing them with a single platform that makes payments simpler yet more secure.”