Why are sole traders being recommended to provide the name on their account when being paid?

An industry-wide initiative called Confirmation of Payee was introduced across over 400 UK payment service providers. It helps you and your customers avoid paying the wrong account, either by mistake or as a result of a scam. When you pay someone’s account, Confirmation of Payee checks the account details you add against the details held by the account you’re paying. These details are: the account number, the sort code, the account type (either business or personal) and the personal name registered to that account. If there’s a mismatch, it lets you know. This can help prevent you from making a payment in error or to a fraudulent account. Because Confirmation of Payee checks the name registered to the account, if you don’t provide this to your customers they’ll receive an alert that the details are mismatched, which could cause a delay to you being paid.