Bank of Ireland UK is a bank that failed to implement Confirmation of Payee, a payments regulation requirement, resulting in a direct enforcement action by the PSR for breach of payments rules.
The CoP mechanism relates to payment account protections and fraud prevention for individuals sending money, which connects to bank account payment services and consumer protections.
Specialism
The PSR imposed a confirmed financial penalty of £3,779,300 on a named payment service provider (Bank of Ireland UK plc) for identified regulatory breaches related to Confirmation of Payee implementation.
The failure to implement Confirmation of Payee, a fraud prevention safeguard mechanism, directly relates to protecting customers against fraud and misdirected payments in the payment journey.
2026-02-19 16:04:37·csoo@vixio.com
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TITLE: Payment Systems Regulator Fines Bank of Ireland UK Over £3.7 Million for Failing to Implement Confirmation of Payee
BODY:
On 19 February 2026, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) fined Bank of Ireland UK plc (BOIUK) £3,779,300 for failing to implement Confirmation of Payee (CoP) by the required deadline. BOIUK was directed to have a system in place to send and receive CoP requests by 31 October 2023 under Specific Direction 17 (SD17), which the PSR published on 11 October 2022. The bank implemented the system 14 months late, leaving more than 1.14 million new payee transactions without CoP protection, totalling approximately £6.9 billion in payments.
Confirmation of Payee is a safeguard mechanism that allows individuals to confirm the account they are sending money to is the one they intend, providing critical protection against fraud and misdirected payments. BOIUK was the last Group 1 payment service provider to achieve compliance with the requirement. The PSR had given payment service providers over a year's notice to implement the measure following confirmation of the requirement in October 2022. BOIUK failed to comply with the send requirements of paragraph 3.1 of SD17. The PSR opened an investigation on 10 July 2024. BOIUK agreed to settle at an early stage of the enforcement decision-making process and qualified for a 30 percent early settlement discount under the PSR's settlement procedures. Without this discount, the PSR would have imposed a financial penalty of £5.4 million.
The PSR has published the full decision notice detailing BOIUK's non-compliance and the penalty payable. SD17 built on earlier work under Specific Direction 10 in 2019, which required the six largest banking groups to implement CoP, and aimed to achieve widespread adoption of CoP protections across payment service providers.
**Reference:** Payment Systems Regulator enforcement notice, 19 February 2026