Following the introduction of the IBAN Name Check for Banks in November 2019, BNG Bank has also been using SurePay’s Switch Check since January 2020. With this check, BNG Bank customers are immediately informed in the online banking environment if the person or company to whom they want to transfer money has switched to another bank. They simply save the new IBAN in the address book. “After the IBAN Name Check, adding the Switch Check is a logical step for us. Customers are less likely to transfer money to the wrong account number as a result,” said Kaj Heins, product manager at BNG Bank.

Switching banks
Switching banks involves quite a bit of hassle for a consumer or business. A consumer or business can use the interbank Transfer Service. This includes passing on the new IBAN to billers. The Betaalvereniging Nederland asks participating banks to also introduce BIBI (Betaler Informeren Bij Initiatie, of payments) before the end. These banks will show a notification to their customers by the end of 2020 for individuals and businesses that have switched, via mobile banking or internet banking.

“Debt collectors who automatically collected from a switcher already received automatic notification of their customer’s new account number. Now, thanks to further digitalisation, the possibility is added to inform someone transferring to a switcher about the new account number quickly and securely interactively as well,” said director Piet Mallekoote of Betaalvereniging Nederland. “This is how Dutch banks keep the switch service low-threshold and future-proof.”

Instantly the correct IBAN
SurePay, as an external processor, may process the switch service data on behalf of a participating bank. This data is cleverly added to the existing IBAN Name Check for banks and businesses. As a result, the information, the new account number after a switch, is immediately available when entering a new payment. “This way, you are aware in real-time of information that you normally only get afterwards via a diversion,” says Marcel Rienties. “This in turn reduces the chances of transferring money to the wrong account number. We think that’s important at SurePay.”

This is good news for companies and organisations already using the IBAN Name Check for Business. After receiving permission from their bank, they can now also apply the Switch Check in their systems. This offers a nice added value when reporting whether an account has been closed or not. Whether implemented directly or through our partners, they can use the additional information provided by the check.

Solution in 2020
Banks participating in the switch service have until the end of this year to comply with the agreement within Betaalvereniging Nederland to implement BIBI (Betaler Informeren Bij Initiatie, of payments) as an extension of the switch service. This means banks will show their customers a notification for individuals and businesses that have switched, via mobile banking or internet banking.

SurePay’s Switch Check is suitable for this purpose and also easy to implement if the bank has already integrated IBAN Name Check. Suzan van Eeten, Area lead Payments at Rabobank, continued: “Rabobank is very pleased with this additional functionality offered by SurePay. We are planning to implement the Switch Check.”

Anonymised screen example of the Switch Check at BNG Bank: