|
News Index
Next
Previous
Companies making Euro payments within Europe have been urged by APACS to remember that they should now be using BICs and IBANs.
BICs and IBANs are the internationally recognised identifiers which act similarly to the domestic sort code and bank account number, and are intended to standardise the information needed for efficient routing and delivery of payments across Europe.
Senders of a Euro payment should obtain the beneficiary’s BIC and IBAN and include these details in the payment instruction they give to their bank.
Beneficiaries, for their part, should ensure they provide their own BIC and IBAN to the payment sender, for example by providing it on invoices and payment requests.
From 1 January 2007 banks across Europe will no longer be obliged to accept payments with incorrect, incomplete or missing beneficiary BIC and IBAN details.
Until this time, whilst a payment instruction may still be accepted without a BIC and IBAN, it may be subject to additional charges and possible delays.
This change has been introduced by the European Payments Council (EPC), the decision-making and coordination body of the European banking industry in relation to payments
The move is seen as an important step towards meeting the European Commission’s goal to create a Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).
Source:
Credit Control Journal
|
