If you're a lawyer, conveyancer or property manager responsible for holding client funds in a trust account, you understand how important it is that clients feel confident their money is going to the right place – especially with scams on the rise.
Jo Barriball
May 28, 2025
The introduction of Confirmation of Payee (CoP) is a big step forward. It helps protect your clients from fraud and misdirected payments by checking that the legal account name matches the account holder at the Bank, but it doesn't always work seamlessly with Trust Accounts.
Trust Accounts offer your clients extra peace of mind. They are operated by Professionals such as lawyers, and it signals that funds are held securely i.e. ‘in trust’.
While in the past, it has been common practice for lawyers to include the word ‘Trust Account’ it creates a mismatched situation with the new CoP technology.
New Zealand banks are required to match the account holder names to the legal name of the entity that holds the account. This means that having ‘Trust Account’ included in your account payment name is likely to result in a ‘No Match’ or ‘Partial Match’ result when the CoP check is performed, potentially deterring your client from completing the payment.
Not quite. CoP uses a strict algorithm to determine if the entered account holder name matches bank records, which is the legal entity name. If extra characters, like ‘Trust Account’ are included, it can create too many discrepancies for a positive match.
Scammers are getting more sophisticated. They’ll hack emails, create fake invoices, or set up companies with names that sound just like yours.
While CoP won’t stop every scam, it adds a vital layer of protection. Encouraging your clients to only pay when they get a ‘Match’ result helps keep them, and you, safe.
Your trust account deposit slip might not say ‘Trust Account’ – but with CoP and clear messaging, your clients can feel confident their payment is going to the right place, for the right purpose.
