Recipient verification as part of the Instant Payments regulation

For Germany, the processes for this were defined in the Implementation of Instant Payments Regulation in the EBICS Procedure by the German Banking Industry Committee. Accordingly, the result of the check is displayed to the payer in the Electronic Distributed Signature (EDS). The approval or cancellation of payments with recipient verification is also carried out via the EDS.

Possible results of VOP are:

RCVC

Full Match: IBAN and name of the payee match.

RVMC

Close Match: The name provided by the submitter only partially matches the data stored at the recipient bank for the relevant IBAN. In this case, the correct name that is actually stored is also returned.

RVNM

No Match: The name provided by the submitter does not match the data stored at the recipient bank for the relevant IBAN.

RVNA

Not possible or applicable: For various reasons, no test result can be provided.

The new requirements apply exclusively to SEPA transfers and real-time transfers. In particular, foreign transfers (DTAZV) and international transfers (MT101, XML) are not affected by the changes.

The use of recipient verification also has no influence on the structure of the payment files. This means that identical file formats are used regardless of whether VOP is used or not.

One significant change concerns the removal of the signature class of the submitter of payments with VOP. Signatures used when submitting an order with recipient verification will only be counted as transport signatures by the bank in the future, regardless of the actual signature class of the submitter. In accordance with the specification, the order will always be transferred into the EDS without a bank-specific signature and must therefore be released via the EDS after the VOP result has been checked. The subscriber's signature submitted via the EDS is then evaluated as usual according to the signature class assigned by the bank (A, B, or E signature).

With the update of the BL Banking programs, all necessary changes regarding the VOP will be automatically available from the effective date of October 5, 2025. This primarily affects the following points.

• When sending bulk orders, you can use a checkbox to decide whether to use recipient verification.
• Single orders, i.e. payment orders with only one payment, must always be submitted with VOP according to the specifications.
• For orders submitted with recipient verification, a result notification is provided via the bank, which can be viewed in the software:
  • In the case of a Full Match, the name and IBAN of the payee match according to the recipient bank.
  • In the case of a Close Match, the recipient bank provides the correct name for the IBAN of the recipient.
  • If the result of the check is that the name does not conform to the IBAN (No Match), you should contact the recipient to correct the data.
  • If the bank cannot provide a result (Not possible or applicable), you should first contact the bank to clarify the cause of the problem and determine how to proceed.
• For banks that do not yet support recipient verification, VOP can be deactivated in the bank settings under Permit verification of payee (VOP).

Further details are available in the software change history and in the online manual.

To ensure smooth payment transactions, the new version of the respective BL Banking program must be installed before October 5, 2025.

As usual, updates are available free of charge to all maintenance customers.

The Support of the manufacturer Business-Logics will be happy to help with any questions that may arise.