IBAN discrimination occurs when a company or service refuses to accept your IBAN number when you perform a payment or other transaction. Fortunately, if you experience this type of discrimination, there are steps that you can take against it.
Here’s what you can do to protect yourself against IBAN discrimination.
IBAN Discrimination Meaning
Many bank accounts are associated with an IBAN number — a string of text that contains up to 34 characters and describes your bank, your bank account, and other information.
IBAN discrimination occurs when a company refuses to serve you based on your IBAN number. Typically, IBANs are refused based on their country of origin.
If you are transacting in a European country — specifically within the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) — IBAN discrimination is not permitted. Many companies nevertheless attempt to refuse service in this way despite the fact that such restrictions are illegal.
The anti-discrimination rule may not apply in the U.S. and other countries outside the SEPA area. If you are unsure whether you are in a SEPA country, refer to this map and list.
What to Do if You Are Facing IBAN Discrimination
If you are facing IBAN discrimination, you can take various courses of action.
Contact The Company
You should first attempt to resolve your issue by contacting the company that you are transacting with and informing them that they are required to accept your IBAN. The company may be able to resolve your issue without any further steps on your part.
Write a Formal Letter of Complaint
If the IBAN discrimination continues, you should write a formal letter of complaint to the company.
You can use a template that informs the company of the way in which they specifically violated regulations. However, you should also closely follow any complaint process described on the company’s website to ensure that your complaint is fully recognized.
By sending a letter, you’ll have a written record of your complaint for future reference.
Contact a Regulatory Body
If writing a formal letter of complaint does not solve your problem, you can contact financial regulators in your country. For any given EU country, you can refer to this list provided by the European Central Bank in order to locate your local financial regulator.
What Is the Law Regarding IBAN Discrimination in the UK and EU?
Article 9 of the European SEPA Regulation (EU 260/2012) specifically bans IBAN discrimination.
This piece of regulation states that a payer or payee cannot decide whether to perform a transaction based on the location of a transaction partner’s payment account.
Various companies have formed a coalition to ensure that companies obey IBAN anti-discrimination laws. Companies such as Wise, N26, Revolut, Raisin, Klarna, SumUp, Fire, Bankeram, and Monneo are involved in this effort. Wise specifically has founded acceptmyiban.org, which allows individuals to report complaints about discrimination.
The European Central Bank said in a recent report that numerous complaints have been made through AcceptMyIBAN since 2021. Representatives committed to solving the issue of IBAN discrimination during the EU Forum of National Payment Committees.
How Do I Report Instances of IBAN Discrimination?
You can report instances of IBAN discrimination in various ways, for example:
- By reporting IBAN discrimination directly to a company
- By reporting IBAN discrimination to your relevant local authority
- By posting a complaint on acceptmyiban.org
You may need to include various pieces of information in your report including:
- Your name, country, and address
- The country that your IBAN account is registered in
- The company that you are filing a complaint against
- A description of the discrimination incident
- Whether you contacted the relevant company
- Your original rejection (if it was emailed or exists in printed form)
Causes of IBAN Discrimination:
Though the specific causes of IBAN discrimination vary between countries, incidents typically occur when individuals or businesses make cross-border payments.
Companies that rarely serve foreign customers may be unaware of IBAN discrimination rules. For example, businesses that typically pay local employees may not realise they need to transact with international IBAN accounts. Utility companies that usually serve local citizens may make similar oversights and attempt to block foreign IBAN numbers.
Certain countries are more prone to IBAN discrimination. According to Wise, France is responsible for 40% of surveyed IBAN discrimination cases, while Spain and Germany are each responsible for 15% of surveyed cases. Though the underlying reasons are unclear, the country that you transact in could be one reason that you face IBAN discrimination.
Political events may also cause confusion around the law. For example, IBAN discrimination in the UK was reported to increase around 2021 in the aftermath of Brexit. In this case, discrimination may be due to honest error rather than a deliberate attempt to break the rules.
How Can IBAN Discrimination Affect Your Business?
IBAN discrimination can affect your business by making it more difficult for you to work with foreign entities and individuals. If your transaction partner does not cooperate with IBAN discrimination laws, you could have a hard time making or receiving important payments.
Exactly how this will impact your business depends on the type of transactions that you make. For example, IBAN discrimination may prevent you from ordering products or services from a supplier when a business partner or supplier rejects your IBAN.
Alternatively, you may be unable to pay employees or contractors in another country if a foreign payment network refuses to accept payments from your IBAN address.
In short, IBAN discrimination can affect any sort of activity that involves financial transactions. Though fighting discrimination is sometimes necessary, choosing to work with known and trusted services carefully can help you avoid IBAN discrimination before it occurs.
How Payset Can Help
Though you cannot predict the actions of other parties, you can simplify matters by using a payment service that is legally compliant. Payset complies with all relevant SEPA laws including Article 9 of SEPA Regulation (EU) No. 260/2012, as described above.
Payset provides streamlined IBAN payments. All Payset accounts include a virtual IBAN account, allowing you to make cross-border payments in a straightforward manner.
Payset fully complies with all regulations in the UK including Electronic Money Regulation (EMR) rules and data protection laws (GDPR). We expressly work against IBAN discrimination by serving IBAN customers from all eligible areas to the extent possible.
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