Sequence of events

How you start validating bank account details depends upon the format that they are supplied in:

if the IBAN is supplied, start from Validate the IBAN

Where the IBAN is used as the domestic account number format, to perform full validation, you must pass the IBAN as the BBAN.

if the BBAN is supplied, start from Validate the BBAN (and BIC).

1. Validate the IBAN

Where the user enters an IBAN into your business application, use Bank Wizard to validate the IBAN.

Some countries use the IBAN as the BBAN. For these countries, to validate the details fully, pass the IBAN as the BBAN, not as the IBAN. This is because Bank Wizard does not validate the bank and branch details for an IBAN.

2. Are there any error conditions?

You must now check for any conditions that have been returned.

If there are any error conditions, the check has failed and you should reject the entered details.

If no error conditions are returned, Bank Wizard converts the IBAN to the BBAN (Domestic Bank Account Number).

3. Is this country supported?

Make sure the country specified in the IBAN is a country supported by your application. If not, reject the details.

4. Validate the BBAN (and BIC)

Where the user enters the BBAN or Bank Wizard has retrieved the BBAN after validating the IBAN, use Bank Wizard to validate the BBAN.

5. Are there any error conditions?

You must now check for any conditions that have been returned when validating the BBAN.

If there are any error conditions, the validation has failed and you should reject the entered details.

6. Are there any conditions to treat as errors?

Depending on the type of transaction you are validating the account details for, some warning or information conditions may prevent you using the details. For example, the warning "Sort code does not support Direct Debit transactions" must stop the processing if you are setting up Direct Debits.

Check for these conditions and if any of these conditions exist, the validation has failed and you should reject the entered details.

7. Is a manual reconfirmation needed?

If Bank Wizard cannot confirm that the account details are correct, (for example, there is no modulus check for this bank or branch code), to validate the details, ask the user to enter the details again.

You do not need a manual reconfirmation if the BBAN was decomposed from the IBAN. This is because the account details have been generated by Bank Wizard.

8. Reconfirm the BBAN (and BIC)

If you ask the user to re-enter the account details there is no need to re-validate them using Bank Wizard. You should only compare them against the original account details.

9. Is the BBAN (and BIC) different?

If the details are different, warn the user and reject the details. You can then re-prompt for the entry of the BBAN (and BIC), or the IBAN and start the process again as described in Validate the BBAN (and BIC) and Validate the IBAN.

10. Is the BBAN (or BIC) transposed?

To identify if the account details entered by the user have been reformatted by Bank Wizard, check for the condition "Account details were not in standard form and have been transposed". Where this condition has been set, retrieve the reformatted values from Bank Wizard.

Condition to check for: BWG_W_TRANSPOSED

11. Store the transposed details

Store the reformatted details within your business application for use when making payments. Ideally, you should also retain the original details for confirmation purposes or of you need to discuss the payment with the customer.

12. Does the IBAN need to be formed?

Does the business application require an IBAN for making a payment?

If you started with the IBAN, ignore steps 12 and 13.

13. Form the IBAN

If the business application needs an IBAN, then use Bank Wizard to form and retrieve the IBAN.

14. Is there a user interface?

If your business application has a user interface, display the required bank and branch information.

If your business application does not have a user interface, ignore steps 14, 15 and 16.

15. Display the relevant details on the user interface

Check the number of bank records that have been returned. If multiple branches have been returned, display a list of the branches so that the user can select the correct one.

When the correct branch has been identified (or only one match is found) display the branch details to the user.

16. Does the user accept the details?

The user should then confirm that the branch details are correct.