Skip to Content
Login
Close

Quick Links

Tag: real-time payments

How You Can Disrupt Scams with Confirmation of Payee

Posted on by Rachael Shupe
Person using their phone to make a payment

As real-time payments become the norm, funds can move between accounts in seconds, giving scammers less time to be detected and stopped. This makes preventative controls increasingly important. Confirmation of Payee (CoP) adds an extra layer of protection before a payment is sent, helping customers verify they are paying the intended person or business.

Australian businesses and consumers lost a staggering $2.18 billion to scams in 2025, an increase of 7.8% from 2024, according to the National Anti-Scam Centre’s latest report released in March 2026. Behind this number lies a deeper impact. For banks and businesses, each fraudulent transaction represents not just financial loss, but also potential reputational damage and diminished customer confidence.

July 2025 marked a turning point in Australia’s fight against payment fraud with the nationwide rollout of Confirmation of Payee, a powerful new weapon in the fight against scammers that’s already proving successful internationally.

“International implementations of similar technology have demonstrated impressive results, with some countries reporting over 60% reduction in areas like email redirection scams.“

Less than a year in, we’re already seeing results. As of February 2026:

  • More than 80 financial institutions are offering CoP Lookups to their customers.
  • Over 143 million accounts are able to receive and respond to a CoP Lookup.
  • Over 83,646 payments stopped due to closed account outcome.

Together, these figures demonstrate the scale of industry adoption and show how verification controls can help prevent payments being sent to invalid or potentially risky accounts.

Why Confirmation of Payee Matters to Your Customers

Every payment starts with trust. Confirmation of Payee (CoP) helps give customers peace of mind by checking that the account details they’ve entered match the person or business they’re intending to pay. If something doesn’t look right, they’re alerted before the payment is made. 

This extra check helps reduce the risk of scams and payment errors, while providing a safer, more confident payment experience for customers. It also helps financial institutions strengthen customer trust and better protect against increasingly sophisticated fraud attempts. 

CoP can help reduce the impact of: 

  • Misdirected payments: Payments sent to the wrong account, whether by mistake or deception.
  • Invoice fraud: When payment details on an invoice have been changed by a scammer.

Protect your customers from real-time payment fraud with Cuscal

Cuscal helps protect Australians from fraud and financial crime at scale. We support more than 23 million protected accounts, monitor 3.3 million cards for fraud and operate a 24/7 fraud operations capability handling more than 330,000 calls annually. Confirmation of Payee forms part of a broader suite of fraud and scam prevention capabilities designed to help clients strengthen customer protection.

Our fraud monitoring platform for real-time payments, including CoP, is a comprehensive tool designed for effective fraud detection and prevention, in real time.

Tackling the Issue of Mule Accounts

Many scams rely on mule accounts to receive and rapidly move stolen funds before they can be recovered. Identifying potentially suspicious accounts early can help financial institutions intervene sooner, disrupt scam payment flows and better protect customers from financial harm.

Confirmation of Payee can play an important role in this broader fraud prevention approach by helping identify payment anomalies before funds are sent, while additional monitoring and intelligence capabilities can support the detection of suspicious account activity.

The Importance of Acting on Mule Account Intelligence

Identifying mule accounts is only the first step. Swift action on this intelligence is crucial because:

  • Mule accounts often function as temporary waypoints, moving funds quickly,
  • Early intervention can prevent multiple fraudulent transactions,
  • Proactive measures help protect your institution’s reputation and maintain customer trust, and
  • Helps institutions meet their compliance obligations through documented fraud prevention measures.

References
Australian Banking Association, ‘Confirmation of Payee’, Australian Banking Association website, accessed 2 September 2025, <https://www.ausbanking.org.au/scam-safe-accord/confirmation-of-payee/>
Australian Banking Association, ‘Launch of Confirmation of Payee’, Australian Banking Association website, accessed 2 September 2025, <https://www.ausbanking.org.au/launch-of-confirmation-of-payee/>
Australian Payments Plus, ‘Confirmation of Payee’, Australian Payments Plus website, accessed 2 September 2025, <https://www.auspayplus.com.au/solutions/confirmation-payee>
Scamwatch, ‘Targeting scams report 2024’, Scamwatch website, report, 2024, accessed 2 September 2025, <https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/system/files/targeting-scams-report-2024.pdf>

Important Information: Information in this article is current as at 23 September 2026 and is subject to change. This article represents personal opinions and views only. This article is provided for general information purposes only and does not have regard to the situation or needs of any reader and must not be relied upon as advice. Before acting on this information, consider its appropriateness to your business Cuscal Limited ABN 95 087 822 455.

Transform your business with PayTo

Posted on by Cuscal Limited

Leveraging the data-rich capabilities of the New Payments Platform (NPP), PayTo delivers insight rich, convenient and trusted payment arrangements for merchants, businesses and government agencies, while consumers benefit from having more control and visibility over payments set up from their bank account.

As PayTo commences rolling out to payments service providers and financial institutions over the coming months it is set to modernise the way bank accounts are used for payments, underpinning innovation for years to come in how we pay and get paid. Representing a step change in account-to-account payments, PayTo is much more than just a real-time alternative to direct debit. PayTo streamlines in-app payments, card-on-file arrangements, funding for digital wallet and buy-now-pay-later services and recurring e-commerce payments.

Accessing PayTo

Payments service providers, fintech and enterprise interested in initiating payments themselves, or on behalf of another third-party, can connect to PayTo via Cuscal. As a market leader in the NPP, Cuscal has the scale, experience, technical knowledge and trusted industry position to help payments service providers, fintech and enterprise compete and succeed with PayTo.

Merchants, businesses and government agencies interested in offering PayTo as a payment option for customers can now access PayTo services through a payments service provider connected to the Platform. Some of the leading innovators on the Platform today have integrated with PayTo through Cuscal’s Payment Initiator Service, building on top of our service to bring to life new innovative PayTo propositions.

Azupay

Established in 2019, Azupay is an Australian fintech focused on payment solutions using the New Payments Platform (NPP) technology, specialising in real-time payments using NPP and PayID to help government, business and consumers pay and get paid faster. www.azupay.com.au

Eway

Eway is a global omnichannel payment provider, processing ecommerce payments for merchants through a secure and reliable online payment gateway that makes it easy to accept payments from anyone, anywhere, from any device. www.eway.com.au

Ezidebit

Ezidebit is one of Australia’s leading online payment solution provider specialising in securely collecting Direct Debit, BPAY, EFTPOS and real-time payments for businesses. www.ezidebit.com

Ezypay

As one of Australia’s leading subscription payment providers, Ezypay offers a suite of easy-to-use subscription management services through their cloud-based payment platform, making it easy for businesses to settle payments and generate revenue through a standalone web interface, or directly integrated into a range of industry specific partner platforms. www.ezypay.com.au

GoCardless

GoCardless is a global leader in account-to-account payments, helping businesses accelerate the collection and management of recurring and one-off payments directly from customers’ bank accounts. With a global payments network and technology platform, GoCardless processes US$30 billion of payments for 65,000 businesses across more than 30 countries every year. www.gocardless.com

Monoova

Monoova supports scaling businesses with large, and often complex, ongoing transaction flows to fully automate how they receive, manage, pay and request payment of funds through one simple API integration. Its proprietary platform allows businesses to access a variety of payments functions, comprehensive reconciliation and reporting options and entirely customised real-time data. www.monoova.com

Paypa Plane

Australian fintech Paypa Plane helps banks and PSPs rapidly evolve product offerings without changing existing infrastructure through it’s simple ‘plug-in’ over the top bank-grade platform and white-label solutions, helping banks and PSPs create closer, more valuable and long term relationships with their small and medium business customers. www.paypaplane.com

Zai

Zai helps mid-market and enterprise-level business customers in the world of integrated financial services automate complex payment workflows and reconcile pay ins and payouts, helping them operate more effectively by saving time and money so they can scale and grow. www.hellozai.com

Cuscal enabling PayTo for financial institutions, payments service providers, fintechs and enterprise

Posted on by Cuscal Limited

Sydney, 30 June 2022

Following the announcement that NPP Australia has opened access to PayTo for the first payments service providers, Cuscal announced today it is enabling 45 financial institutions and payment services providers with access to PayTo as rollout commences over the coming months.

Cuscal was one of the founding financial institutions that established the New Payments Platform (NPP), Australia’s real-time payment system, and enabled over 60% of the financial institutions that were live on Day 1.

Since that time, Cuscal has strengthened its position as the market leader in NPP services, building a strong foundation of clients, industry relationships, expertise and scale over the last five years.

Cuscal currently:

  • Provides access to the NPP for over half of all financial institutions and payment service providers on the platform that offer real time payments to their customers
  • Processes 18% of payments made and 19% of payments received on the NPP

Cuscal is working closely with a large group of banks, payments service providers and software providers to support the ramp up of PayTo over the next few months. Cuscal’s PayTo development and implementation project has included many financial institutions and PSPs who wish to drive payment innovation and improved customer experiences using PayTo.

Bianca Bates, Chief Client Officer and Deputy CEO, Cuscal Limited, said:

Cuscal is able to support a wide range of capabilities. We are about enabling competition. We provide services that let our clients innovate and develop their businesses. It has been a rewarding process to work with our financial institution and payment service provider clients to enable them to be the early adopters for PayTo.

The first group of financial institutions and payment service providers integrating with PayTo through Cuscal will go-live between July and September, followed by fast followers between October and December. The gradual ramp up of PayTo is expected to be completed in 2023 with full industry adoption.

Cuscal’s NPP infrastructure, scalable solution design and modular API services have made it possible for both existing and new clients who are focused on investing in innovation for their customers, to extend their NPP services to access PayTo, ensuring they are at the forefront of future payments innovation across subscription and bill payments, ecommerce and in app transactions, embedded finance and account funding, and the bulk disbursement of funds.

Cuscal has also partnered with software providers to ensure that Cuscal’s NPP Payments and PayTo services are integrated seamlessly into all clients’ digital channels to deliver an optimum customer experience.

Cuscal’s expertise and scale has also attracted clients who are nimble, innovative and focused to take advantage of one seamless onboarding to enable them to be first to market with Cuscal’s NPP Payments and PayTo services.

James Foster, Chief Executive Officer, Ezypay, commented:

We chose to partner with Cuscal as we knew they could deliver on our requirements to be live with PayTo on Day 1. We are a leading subscription payments fintech and it’s comforting to know that Cuscal’s vision for the future of payments in Australia is strongly aligned with ours.

More information about Cuscal’s PayTo initiation services.

Payment Services Providers – initiating PayTo payments for businesses

  1. Azupay
  2. Ezypay
  3. Global Payments (Eway, Ezidebit)
  4. GoCardless
  5. Hay Limited
  6. Merchant Warrior
  7. Monoova
  8. Paypa Plane
  9. Zai (formerly Assembly Payments)

Payer Financial Institutions – making PayTo payments for customers

  1. Australian Mutual Bank
  2. Australian Unity Bank
  3. Bank Australia
  4. Bank of Queensland (BOQ and Virgin Money)
  5. Bank WAW
  6. bcu
  7. Bendigo Bank
  8. Beyond Bank
  9. Central Murray Credit Union
  10. Community First Credit Union
  11. Credit Union SA
  12. Defence Bank
  13. First Option Bank
  14. Geelong Bank
  15. Goulburn Murray Credit Union
  16. Hay Limited
  17. Horizon Bank
  18. Illawarra Credit Union
  19. Laboratories Credit Union
  20. Great Southern Bank
  21. MyState Bank
  22. Northern Inland Credit Union
  23. Orange Credit Union
  24. P&N Bank
  25. People’s Choice
  26. Police Credit Union
  27. Queensland Country Bank
  28. RACQ Bank
  29. Regional Australia Bank
  30. South West Slopes Credit Union
  31. Teachers Mutual Bank Limited (Teachers Mutual Bank, Firefighters Mutual Bank, Health Professionals Bank, Hiver and UniBank)
  32. The Broken Hill Community Credit Union
  33. The Mac
  34. ubank (formerly 86400)
  35. Unity Bank Limited (Unity Bank and Reliance Bank)
  36. Warwick Credit Union

Media contact

Simone Perryman, SShields@cuscal.com.au

Beyond real-time: the value of pre-authorised payments from bank accounts

Posted on by Cuscal Limited

The face of payments in Australia has changed dramatically over the last twenty to thirty years, with the pace of change set to accelerate as technological advancements revolutionise the way we make, receive and request payments.

As the most frequently requested capability for the New Payments Platform (NPP), enabling the capabilities required to support third-party payment initiation from bank accounts has been a key priority for the payments and banking industry. Known as PayTo, this service will leverage the infrastructure of the NPP to drive the next phase of growth for the Platform.

PayTo will lead the use of embedded, pre-authorised payments from bank accounts in Australia, supporting a diverse range of payment use cases. It will provide consumers and businesses greater confidence, certainty and control over account-to-account payments as they are moved seamlessly into the background.

While PayTo will be available from mid-2022, when shifts in payment technology occur you want to be at the front of the queue to gain a first mover advantage over competitors. To help payment service providers and enterprises plan for the introduction of PayTo this white paper looks at:

  • The origins of real-time payments in Australia and the future directions for the NPP;
  • The rapid uptake of payment initiation in the UK under Open Banking;
  • The value PayTo will deliver to consumers and businesses and what the user journey looks like from the end-user perspective;
  • The role different participants play in the PayTo ecosystem; and
  • What Cuscal is doing to enable the PayTo services that are required by payer banks and payment initiators.

Format: White paper
Audience: Payment service providers and enterprises that process a large volume of payments
Estimated reading time: 20 minutes

Unlocking the potential of real-time payment

Posted on by Cuscal Limited


A discussion on unlocking the potential of real-time payments with Adrian Lovney (NPPA), John Banfield (BPAY), our own Nathan Churchward & Phillip Finnegan (ACI Worldwide) at Curious Thinkers 2018 in Sydney.

Watch the video to see the panel discussion into the potential of real-time payments, as well as covering the competitive landscape, fraud and NPP access.

NPP overlays will give great customer experiences

Posted on by Cuscal Limited

Nathan ChurchwardThe New Payments Platform (NPP) will be arriving in 2017 and will be a catalyst for fundamental change in the way financial institutions, businesses and everyday people make payments.

Most people in Australian payments-focused companies are aware of this much, but at Cuscal we’re finding that people are a bit hazier on the finer details of exactly how the NPP will work. One part in particular which has been causing some confusion is exactly how the NPP’s overlay services work. What do they do? How do they interact with the NPP’s basic infrastructure? And, what do they offer beyond the promise of real-time payments?

Most people will experience the NPP through overlay services
The first thing it’s important to know about overlay services is that they’re going to be the public face of the NPP – the way that most people will experience it. Here at Cuscal we’ve started to think of the NPP like the internet and its overlay services as the websites, portals, apps and other online tools that make it exciting, interesting and useful.

As I mentioned in my last LinkedIn post, BPAY will be offering the NPP’s first overlay service, currently known as the Initial Convenience Service (although it will get a consumer-friendly name before launch). The ICS will be live from Day 1 and will add important extra functionality to the NPP by allowing:

  • People to make payments in close to real-time availability via mobile devices
  • Payments to be linked securely to documents (e.g. a remittance advice or tax statement)
  • People to request money from others (Payment requests)

The possibilities for overlay services are nearly limitless
What’s really exciting about the NPP’s overlay services though is what will be possible – just about anything! We think that one of the most valuable things that they will offer is the possibility to create great customer experiences and this is what we set out to explore in our new animation and white paper.

  • The animation gives a simple introduction to overlay services, explaining what they are, why they’re important and showing how some potential overlay services and might benefit businesses and consumers. Watch the animation.
  • The white paper goes into more detail about how the NPP’s basic infrastructure will work, the different types of overlay services which might be created and how this could all combine to create great customer experiences. Read the Cuscal Using the NPP white paper.

By Nathan Churchward, Senior Manager, Payments