Since the end of January 2020, BNG Bank customers have been able to benefit from SurePay's Switch Check. In the online banking environment, they receive a notification if the person or company to whom they are transferring money has switched to another bank. The notification shows the new account number. Customers can save this new number directly in their bank's address book.
This means that BNG Bank is well ahead of schedule in complying with the requirement of the Dutch Payments Association, which requires all banks participating in the Switch Service to implement BIBI (Betaler Informeren Bij Initiatie, or Informing Payers Upon Initiation of Payments) by the end of 2020 at the latest. At the end of 2020, these banks will show their customers a notification for individuals and companies who have switched, via mobile banking or internet banking.
‘Collectors who automatically collect payments from someone who has switched banks already received automatic notification of their customer's new account number. Now, thanks to further digitisation, it is also possible to quickly and securely inform anyone who transfers money to someone who has switched banks about the new account number,’ says Piet Mallekoote, director of the Dutch Payments Association. ‘In this way, Dutch banks are keeping the Switch Service accessible and future-proof.’
Banks can choose to arrange this with SurePay's Switch Check. ‘Following the introduction of the IBAN Name Check, adding the Switch Check is a logical step for us. This makes it less likely for customers to transfer money to the wrong account number,’ says Kaj Heins, product manager at BNG Bank.
SurePay is authorised as a third party to process the Switch Service data on behalf of a participating bank. This data has been cleverly added to the existing IBAN Name Check APIs. This allows banks to not only notify customers in the online banking environment when the combination of name and IBAN does not match, but also when the person or company has switched to another bank. Suzan van Eeten, Area Lead Payments at Rabobank, continues: ‘Rabobank is very pleased with this additional functionality offered by SurePay. We are also planning to implement this functionality.’
The new account number can be used immediately, ensuring that you pay into the correct account. You can also save the new number in your address book. ‘This means that, as a customer, you are immediately aware of information that you would normally only receive indirectly or retrospectively,’ says Marcel Rienties, co-founder of SurePay. This is also valuable information for companies and organisations that already use SurePay's IBAN Name Check API. With their bank's permission, they can also apply the Switch Check in their systems.