From December 2024, a Confirmation of Payee service has been introduced across the New Zealand banking sector. The service enables you to check if account names and account numbers match before making a payment to a New Zealand bank account. This reduces the risk of making a mistake and paying the wrong person, and can help to avoid scams.

When paying into a WBS account

WBS is a building society and not a bank. This means we don’t have Confirmation of Payee services. However, you can have certainty that MOST trading banks will acknowledge us as a registered payee. In the same way Inland Revenue (IRD) appears as a registered payee when you pay taxes online, WBS should also come up when you enter our name. You can use either ‘WBS’ or ‘Wairarapa Building Society’ to search for us.

When paying from a WBS account

Because we don’t have Confirmation of Payee services ourselves, you need to be confident that the details of who you are paying are correct. Check and double check before making a payment.

Got questions?

To find out more about Confirmation of Payee services, visit Get Verified. For any questions about your WBS account, give us a call on (06) 370 0070.