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Consumer New Zealand says banks have been taken too long to implement the confirmation of payee service.
Banks will implement a confirmation of payee service from November, but a full implementation is not expected until Easter next year.
The Banking Association says the delay has been because of the complexity and size of changes needed to accommodate the confirmation of payee service.
The service lets customers check the account name matches the account number of where they are sending money.
Customers will be provided with a match, partial match or no match notification.
It will only work across New Zealand based bank accounts - meaning it won't help protect against scams where people are sending money to an overseas account.
Estimates are that consumers here are losing about $200 million a year to scams that are increasing in complexity and number.
Consumer NZ's Jessica Walker says this has taken too long.
But first, Martin King is general manager customer assist at BNZ, and he's been working to implement the changes at that bank.
