SurePay, SEPAMail.eu and StreamMind have today announced the launch of the first cross-border IBAN Check/Confirmation of Payee solution. This service enables companies and banks to check that the account information entered matches the intended beneficiary when initiating cross-border payments between France and the Netherlands and marks an important first step towards a pan-European solution in the fight against fraud.
The IBAN Check, known in the UK as Confirmation of Payee, is a way to give consumers, banks and companies greater assurance that their payments are being routed to the intended recipient and are not being accidentally or deliberately misdirected.
Payments across Europe have increasingly shifted to digital channels, leading to a surge in fraud cases throughout the continent due to methods such as phishing, spoofing, APP scams and CEO fraud. Additionally, fraud is becoming increasingly international, whereby fraudsters are using foreign bank accounts for fraudulent purposes.
SEPAmail.eu offers an account check solution in France for more than 90% of bank accounts and SurePay’s IBAN-Name Check solution checks 99.5% of all online payments in the Netherlands. StreamMind has orchestrated the set-up, the cross-country SEPAmail homologation and ensures the connection between the two entities. By combining their networks, the companies will enable French and Dutch companies and banks to check that their payments are going to the intended beneficiary before the transaction is initiated.
The IBAN verifications that are done by quiring directly the account database of banks, significantly reduce fraud and misdirected payments, helping to increase efficiency and reduce operational costs.
Joint forces
SEPAmail.eu offers interbank services that facilitate and simplify all financial exchanges between companies, individuals and banks. SEPAmail.eu is a secure messaging system with an open architecture that uses an online network for ease of access. It is based on a standard that allows members to exchange digital information in a completely secure way.
StreamMind is proud to be the original software editor of the inter-banking technology for SEPAmail.eu. The network connects hundreds of banks and companies across Europe and its services are used by millions of people every year. StreamMind has developed the LUCY DIAMOND software solution, the first application that instantly cross-checks banking with personal or corporate details, which is compatible with SEPAmail.eu DIAMOND service.
SurePay is the leading provider of Confirmation of Payee and inventor of the IBAN-Name Check. SurePay’s algorithm combines cutting-edge data science techniques with profound knowledge of transactions and payer’s behaviour to help prevent fraud and mistakes whilst facilitating straight through processing. Unlike conventional name checking algorithms, the SurePay algorithm has been specifically designed for IBAN-Name Check/Confirmation of Payee from scratch.
The partnership will connect over 30 Dutch banks, accounting for 99.5% of all online payments in the Netherlands, and 114 French banks accounting for more than 90% of French bank accounts.
David-Jan Janse, CEO of SurePay, said: “Since implementing our IBAN-Name Check for banks and corporates in the Netherlands in 2017, our customers have witnessed an 81% drop in reported scams and a 67% drop in misdirected payments. The natural next step was to make our solution available for cross-border payments and we are very proud of our partnership with SEPAmail and StreamMind which allows us to achieve that goal. The team at SurePay are looking forward to working with SEPAmail and StreamMind to fight fraud.”
Jacques Vanhautère, CEO of SEPAmail.eu, said: “2021 is clearly the year of take-off of DIAMOND, our French IBAN check solution with more than 30% gross. With this partnership with SurePay and thanks to the help of StreamMind we enter now in another dimension that is the European area to offer a real international solution to fight against IBAN fraud. This connection between France and the Netherlands is a first great step to a cross Europe IBAN reliability solution for both French and Netherlands communities.
Nicolas Muhadri, CEO of StreamMind, “Our goal is to secure exchanges and transactions between organisations and humans. We believe this partnership is a step forward in international development to fight payment fraud. StreamMind is honored to be part of this partnership and to have developed softwares that is cross-country compatible to make this project come true. We know this is only the beginning; we are discussing with most European countries to connect them before the end of 2022, knowing that client's requests have already tripled between 2020 and 2021."
