EU Name Checks Apply to Eligible Euro Transfers to Crypto Platforms

Euro-area payment providers have had to offer free name verification for standard and instant euro transfers since Oct. 9, 2025, a check that applies when crypto customers use eligible SEPA payments.

The payee check compares the recipient name entered by the payer with the name associated with the IBAN. Before authorization, the payment provider can return a match, close match, no match or an indication that verification was not possible. A warning is not an automatic payment block; the payer can review the details or proceed.

The check concerns the account tied to the IBAN, not whether that name matches a crypto platform’s brand. Deposit setups differ by platform. Kraken’s Banking Circle option assigns each customer a dedicated bank account in that person’s name for euro transfers through SEPA or SEPA Instant.

A survey of 1,030 German online-banking users conducted Aug. 3-9, 2026, found 91% supported the check in principle, but 27% gave its implementation a poor rating.

Of respondents who saw a warning in the previous six months, 58% reported warnings on roughly a quarter or more of their transfers. “Anyone who repeatedly receives false alarms will eventually click warnings away,” said Dorothea Mohn, head of the financial markets team at Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (vzbv).

The name check is separate from the EU’s instant-payment timing rule. Euro-area banks had to begin receiving instant payments by Jan. 9, 2025, and sending them by Oct. 9, 2025. The rule generally requires funds to be available in the recipient’s payment account within 10 seconds. That clock does not require a crypto platform to post the deposit to a customer’s trading balance within the same period.

Payment providers in EU countries outside the euro area have until July 9, 2027, to offer payee verification.