International Payments Guide. Why valid bank account data matters

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1 International Payments Guide Why valid bank account data matters

2 Introduction The speed, efficiency and cost of processing credit transfers and direct debits is dependent on the quality of the bank account data you collect. This is undoubtedly true in a domestic setting but is compounded when dealing with different data formats across multiple countries. While the advent of SEPA will standardise the format within the Single Euro Payments Area, realising the benefits is likely to add complexity, at least in the short term. This guide helps you build your business case to prioritise validation of bank accounts both from a commercial perspective and within the context of SEPA migration. Bank account data and your bottom line Capturing the correct bank account and payment routing information for processing domestic, cross-border and international payments can be confusing, timeconsuming and costly. Yet these are vital steps to ensuring your payments reach the correct destination quickly and efficiently and Straight-Through-Processing (STP) is maximised. Failed payments lead to delays, re-submission costs and repair or rejection exchange charges, all factors which will have a negative impact on your bottom-line. Further cost is incurred in chasing customers for correct information, and the perceived poor customer service this represents can lead to customer drop-off and reduced repeat business. How error occurs It has been shown that broadly speaking error occurs in three categories, content, format and integrity. Format errors relate to the technical format of the bank account, integrity errors relate to invalid check digits or violations of specific rules for a domestic account number, while content errors relate to the meaning of the data, for example unallocated, transferred or closed bank codes. Poor bank account data often results from error at point of collection, with factors such as mis-keying and mis-hearing having significant impact. Data held within business databases also ages as branches are closed and banks merge, meaning that periodic re-validation is required. Research in the UK shows that error rates incurred at this point can be as high as 8%. In addition error can be factored in over time, changes occur that result in data losing validity, for example the bank or branch code being no longer in use due to closure. A whitepaper by Experian examining European data quality 1 has estimated an overall error rate of almost 13% however there is a wide variation both by geography and industry sector. Although banks may on occasion correct error on behalf of corporate clients these errors can lead to rejected payments and the associated costs, at any point. 1. Will poor quality in domestic account data affect the migration to SEPA an Experian statistical whitepaper on the obstacles to full migration. 2 - International Payments Guide - why valid bank account data matters

3 BBAN, IBAN and BIC Much legacy bank account data is stored in the domestic format of the country of issue, in some cases requiring cleansing and standardisation to convert it to a more standard BBAN format (Basic Bank Account Number). Since 2003 the CREDEURO standard has required the use of IBAN (International Bank Account Number) and BIC (Bank identifier Code) to ensure Straight-Through-Processing for cross-border Euro payments. Some businesses have simply reformatted their bank account information into IBAN format without regard to the quality of the original bank account data; this can easily lead to repair charges and/or payment rejection. The case for attending to underlying data quality in legacy formats is made stronger in the context of domestic SEPA. While relatively few payments are currently delivered using SEPA instruments, they will be made mandatory for euro domestic payments within the EU, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, resulting in a significant increase in transaction volumes. This is likely to impede banks from repairing faulty domestic transactions on behalf of their corporate clients, something they may currently be doing manually without charge or notification to the originator of the transaction. Key Benefits of validated Data Reduce internal cost - Ensuring you have valid data will cut down on the administration and call handling required to collect corrected data to enable reprocessing. Reduce external cost - Correct data will help you to eliminate fees such as repair, rejection and transaction charges associated with re-processing failed payments. Improve customer services - Allowing validation at point of sign-up via the channel of your customer s choice (telephone, website, face to face) gives a seamless on-boarding experience that enhances your customers opinion of you and eliminates the need for you to chase them for information at a later date. Streamline your processes - Correct validation of bank account data will allow you to eliminate manual intervention for data capture and exception handling. Comply with bank requirements - Your bank will need account data for payments in IBAN and BIC format and may reject or charge you to get it right. Remove the uncertainty by giving them good data in the correct format. Straight-Through- Processing rates will be enhanced by adherence to your banking partner s guidelines on data validity for ACH/wire payments. Validated data enriched with IBAN and BIC - Allows you to take advantage of more of the payment mechanisms offered by your bank, choice that can bring cost and efficiency benefits. Be ready to comply with SEPA - By ensuring bank account data validity you will be prepared to make a smooth transition to SEPA instruments without incurring additional cost or payment delays for your mission-critical collections and payables. 3 - International Payments Guide - why valid bank account data matters

4 Selecting a service provider In choosing a solution to manage the validity of your bank account data a number of factors should be taken into account to ensure that your requirements are met. Conversion and point of capture validation Organisations may view the conversion of their legacy data to be of primary concern. This can be accomplished with a one-off data conversion service, however this will only deliver data validity at point of conversion. Data integrity can only be maintained through periodic re-application of the conversion service. To fully realise the cost-reduction, efficiency and customer service benefits a solution should be considered that will ensure data validity in real time at point of capture, as well as allow for conversion of legacy data and ongoing cleansing. Category of error As discussed error can occur in content, format or integrity of data, in the case of both data conversion and point of capture validation it is vital that your chosen solution can identify and advise actions to tackle all aspects of data error. Data coverage The validity of your data will ultimately be dependent upon the data your solutions supplier has access to and also how they update and supply that data to you. When transacting globally you need to ensure that your supplier can provide appropriate data sets for wherever you trade. To preserve data integrity, you need a supplier with the capability to deliver relevant changes to you in an accessible format that can be readily applied. Finding the best return on investment Your strategy for converting existing data to valid IBAN and BIC format, must be weighed against the cost involved in achieving and maintaining data integrity. The cost of correcting a failed submission has been calculated at around 50, when taking into account the charges and costs associated with correcting data, with an average error rate of 13% significant costs could be incurred. Converting data by manually contacting your customers, staff and other stakeholders is likely to be the most expensive option; dependent upon human interaction it is also likely to introduce error and prevent your staff from engaging in other, potentially more profitable activity. 4 - International Payments Guide - why valid bank account data matters

5 Solutions are available that will convert existing domestic data to IBAN and BIC format. A straightforward conversion service will not flag exceptions where the underlying BBAN information is incorrect. Although much of your data will become SEPA ready an average 13% error rate will still be present; this will not be identified until payment rejection has happened and associated charges incurred. By deploying a solution that both validates the underlying data and converts to IBAN and BIC you will be able to separate good quality account information from bad and efficiently and cost-effectively manage exceptions, before payment rejection happens and charges are incurred. Knowing about and managing exceptions as soon as possible means that you can better manage your customers experience and improve customer services. Relative costs of data conversion solutions Validation costs per database record Manual update Automated conversion and handling exceptions Validation and conversion Based on Experian customer research this diagram illustrates the relative costs of the different methods for handling and repairing bank account data. Conclusion The costs associated with rejected payments and repairs illustrate the need to establish and maintain valid bank account data within your organisation. The more manual your processes for achieving this, the higher the costs will ultimately be. The sound commercial benefits of data validation are further increased in the context of compliance with SEPA. 5 - International Payments Guide - why valid bank account data matters

6 Experian Ltd Landmark House Experian Way NG2 Business Park Nottinghamshire United Kingdom NG80 1ZZ T info@experianidentityandfraud.com About Experian Experian, the leading global information services company provides data and analytical tools to clients in more than 80 countries. Our payment solutions enable the world s leading banks and corporate organisations to make and collect payments effortlessly while controlling costs, improving customer service and reducing risk and fraud. our market leading solutions include bank account validation from point-of-capture onwards, and our data conversion service which validates and converts existing data ensuring SEPA standards are met. Experian Limited The word EXPERIAN and the graphical device are trade marks of Experian and/or its associated companies and may be registered in the EU, USA and other countries. The graphical device is a registered Community design in the EU. All rights reserved.