Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has selected Experian to provide its corporate customers with global payment validation and data conversion services, enabling them to make Sepa-compliant transactions.
As the migration to Sepa services gathers pace, banks and their corporate customers will no longer be able to use domestic Basic Bank Account Numbers (BBANs) in their domestic and cross-border euro payments.
Experian says that by using its Data Conversion service, RBS' corporate customers will be able to check and cleanse bank account details in bulk and then convert them from domestic BBANs into the required International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs) and corresponding Bank Identifier Codes (BICs) for all domestic and cross-border payments under Sepa, improving straight-through processing and lowering costs.
Meanwhile Bank Wizard, the vendor's global validation software, will allow RBS customers to instantaneously validate account details and find the correct BIC in up to 228 countries and territories worldwide. The technology will reduce the costs and delays associated with reprocessing failed payments, whilst at the same time improving customer service levels, says Experian. Corporates will also find payment routing more effective by moving away from higher cost wire payments to Sepa or ACH, worldwide.
Wilco Dado, head, global payments, RBS, says: "Through Experian we will be able to provide our customers with a range of services that allow them to mitigate against the cost and risk associated with continual changes in the global payments market. This new service will allow our corporate customers to validate and convert bulk data files and to validate bank account data at the point of data entry. As a result, customers will be able to successfully route payments via Sepa or other routing mechanisms, whilst completing any missing information required for worldwide payments."