Verify your suppliers' and clients' IBANs via API

Frequently asked questions about IBAN validation via API

Built into our payment and collections API, our account assessment module automatically checks the validity and reliability of an IBAN before any payment or direct debit. It goes well beyond a basic format check: it cross-references interbank data to confirm that the IBAN matches the beneficiary's identity, detect fraud history, and flag compromised accounts.

It relies on cross-referencing two data sources: data from the Verification of Payee (VoP) standard set by the European Payments Council, which checks the name/IBAN match on credit transfers; and data from the Fraud Pattern and Anomaly Detection (FPAD) tool run by EBA Clearing, the European clearing house, fed by billions of recent and historical transactions. Cross-referencing these two sources delivers 20% higher accuracy than standard VoP-only solutions, with a significant reduction in false positives. Coverage extends across all 36 SEPA countries.

VoP is now mandatory for SEPA credit transfers: it checks that the beneficiary's name matches the IBAN provided. Memo Bank's API goes further, enriching this standard with various sources of data including :

• EBA Clearing's transactional data (FPAD): billions of European interbank transactions over two years of history.

• FNC-RF (Fichier National des Comptes signalés pour Risque de Fraude) data, that lists bank account IBANs suspected of involvement in financial fraud.

The result: it detects fraudulent or compromised IBANs with 20% additional accuracy compared to VoP.

Yes, and this sets Memo Bank apart. Most solutions on the market limit verification to outgoing credit transfers. The Memo Bank API also screens direct debit mandates: before accepting a debit on an IBAN, you can check that the account isn't compromised or linked to a fraudulent identity. This two-way protection, covering both the IBANs you send credit transfers to and the IBANs you collect direct debits from, matters for companies handling high-volume flows in both directions.

No. IBAN verification is entirely decoupled from executing a credit transfer or direct debit. Trigger it at any stage of your processes: onboarding a supplier, updating bank details, or ahead of a direct debit campaign. No payment needs to be triggered to get an assessment.

Results are sent in real time via webhook. Your information system is notified automatically of the outcome of each verification as soon as it's ready: no added latency, no manual steps.

Integration takes a few days, with support from Memo Bank's team. There's no long, costly IT project: the API runs on market standards (REST/JSON) and is part of Memo Bank's versatile Premium API, which already covers account, cash, and liquidity management.

All 36 SEPA countries, including EU member states and several associated countries (Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, the UK, etc.).

Yes. This is one of the most common use cases. Since verification doesn't depend on a payment, it can start as early as the supplier or client onboarding phase: validate bank details upfront, before the relationship generates its first transactions.