Sending money online has never been easier, but that convenience also inevitably creates new risks. It has become surprisingly simple to send money to the wrong person or fall victim to a sophisticated scam. Whether it's a typo in account details or deliberate fraud, the consequences can be painful for both consumers and businesses. Account Name Verification (ANV) addresses exactly this problem.
Account Name Verification is a verification service that checks whether the name provided during a transaction matches the name the card issuer has on file for that account. It's a straightforward validation step that happens before money actually changes hands, serving as a sanity check that can prevent costly mistakes and catch fraud before it's too late.
The service works as an enhancement to existing account verification processes, allowing merchants and payment originators to trigger ANV checks before processing transactions or during card onboarding flows.
When a verification request is sent, it includes the card number (or token) and the account holder's name. The card network then either performs the name matching itself or passes the request to the issuing bank to verify. Importantly, the actual name on file is never disclosed to the merchant, so only the match result is returned.
The rise in payment fraud and scams has created significant challenges across the industry, and ANV addresses several critical pain points that businesses face today.
Authorized Push Payment (APP) scams represent a growing threat where criminals trick victims into voluntarily sending them money. These scams often involve impersonation, with fraudsters claiming to be a charity, a business, or even a government agency. ANV provides a crucial checkpoint in these scenarios because when a victim attempts to send money to "Save the Children Foundation" but the account is registered to an individual named John Smith, the mismatch gets flagged. This gives users a chance to reconsider before completing the transaction.
Account takeover scenarios become more difficult for fraudsters to execute successfully when ANV is in place. If an attacker gains access to someone's social media account or digital wallet and attempts to swap in their own card details, ANV can detect that the name on the newly added card doesn't match the account holder's name. This creates an additional barrier that can prevent unauthorized access to funds.
Card-not-present fraud gets another defensive layer through name verification. When fraudsters attempt to use stolen card details at online merchants, ANV can identify the mismatch between the name provided during checkout and the actual cardholder name, allowing merchants to reject suspicious transactions before processing them.
Beyond fraud prevention, ANV helps businesses meet evolving regulatory requirements. Governments and regulators worldwide are placing increased pressure on financial institutions to refund scam victims and implement proper name verification checks. By adopting ANV, businesses can demonstrate compliance with these requirements while simultaneously building trust with their customers.
There's also a commercial benefit worth considering. Customers who feel protected are more confident completing transactions, which can lead to improved conversion rates and reduced cart abandonment, particularly for high-value transactions where purchasers might otherwise hesitate.
The technical process is designed to be straightforward and flexible. When a merchant or payment originator initiates an ANV request, they send the card details along with the name to be verified, broken into separate components: first name, middle name (optional), and last name (required at minimum).
The system returns granular results with separate match indicators for each name component plus an overall result for the complete name set. This granularity is useful because it helps distinguish between legitimate variations and genuine fraud. For example, if someone's middle name doesn't match but their first and last names are perfect matches, that's likely just a case of the person not providing their full legal name. But if the last name is completely different, that's a red flag worth investigating.
Results come in three categories that help you decide how to proceed. A "match" indicates a very close or exact match, giving you confidence to move forward. A "partial match" suggests possible typos or minor discrepancies that might warrant a second look. A "no match" indicates clear mismatches that warrant additional scrutiny before proceeding. The matching algorithm is intelligent enough to handle common variations, so minor spelling mistakes like "Elizabethh" instead of "Elizabeth" will still return a match, while genuine discrepancies get flagged appropriately.
The system applies weighted scoring, with the greatest emphasis placed on the last name since it's typically the most reliable identifier and least likely to have legitimate variations.
For businesses looking to implement ANV, there are some important practical considerations that can make or break the user experience. First, user interface design matters significantly because how you collect the information directly impacts match rates. It's crucial to collect names properly by using separate fields for first, middle, and last names rather than a single "full name" field. The prompts should clearly indicate you're asking for the legal name held by the cardholder's bank, not just "the name on the card," which users might interpret as permission to use a nickname or shortened version.
The service verifies against the primary legal name the issuer has on file, specifically the name used when the account was created and for official correspondence with the customer. Some card types, including business cards and non-reloadable prepaid cards, may not have associated names, and in these cases the system will return a "not supported" response.
ANV supports Roman/Latin alphabet characters plus diacritics and special characters, with a 35-character maximum for each name field. The service is currently optimized for markets using these character sets.
Finally, it's important to understand what ANV is and what it isn't so you can set appropriate expectations. This is a verification tool, not a complete fraud prevention solution. It doesn't perform sanctions checks, it's not directly part of the transaction authorization decision, and it doesn't create a liability shift in case of disputes. However, it may potentially serve as compelling evidence in dispute resolution processes, depending on how parties choose to use it. Think of ANV as one valuable tool in your fraud prevention toolkit rather than a standalone solution.
If you’d like to learn more about implementation details, pricing, or how ANV can benefit your specific use case, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to us anytime via our contact form to start the conversation.
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