Bankwest boosts in-app scam protections

Bankwest has introduced a new security measure for customer payments called Confirmation of Payee, designed to help enhance protection for customers against scams, fraud, and mistaken payments.

• Confirmation of Payee is an account-matching feature for customers to use when making payments.
• The new feature has been developed by industry body Australian Payments Plus (AP+).
• Confirmation of Payee is the latest in a new series of in-app and online banking technology investments by Bankwest aimed at helping customers better protect themselves from scams.

The Confirmation of Payee feature works alongside existing security tool NameCheck, and together the two solutions will help customers better protect themselves from scams.

NameCheck helps customers identify potential mismatches based on Bankwest’s available payment data, and considers factors such as preferred names, nicknames and business trading names.

Confirmation of Payee then seeks to match the bank account details entered by a customer making a domestic payment with the details held by the recipient’s bank and displays a potential match, or potential mismatch, to the customer.

Since Bankwest launched NameCheck in 2024, more than 2.5 million NameCheck look-ups by customers have led to over 300,000 click-backs to double check payment details.

NameCheck has helped reduce Payment Redirection cases at Bankwest by 35% in FY25. These cases often involve fraudsters impersonating businesses to divert payments to other accounts.

Bankwest General Manager of Customer Trust and Security, Philippa Costanzo said:

“Bankwest has an ambition to be Australia’s favourite digital bank and we’re prioritising investment in the Bankwest app to deliver customers ways to help better protect themselves from scams, and uncomplicated and genuinely useful banking services.

“Confirmation of Payee is the latest in our series of new security features to help customers combat scams and fraud, which have included NameCheck, Check-It and the popular Virtual Cards feature.

“Bankwest recorded a 57% drop in customer scam losses in FY25, driven by new technology investment in the app, and we’re looking forward to introducing added layers of protection in the months to come.”