RBS signs data conversion deal with Experian

The Royal Bank of Scotland has signed a deal with Experian for the company to provide payment validation and data conversion services for its corporate customers.

The deal will allow the bank's corporate customers to make SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) compliant payments and ensure payments reach the correct beneficiaries anywhere in the world.

As the migration to SEPA services gathers pace, banks and their corporate customers will no longer be able to use domestic Basic Bank Account Numbers (BBANs) in their domestic and cross-border euro payments. Failing to submit payment details in the correct format may incur additional charges plus additional fees for correcting the information.

Using Experian's Data Conversion service, RBS' corporate customers will be able to check and cleanse bank account details in bulk. They will be able to convert them from domestic BBANs into the required International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs) and corresponding BICs for all domestic and cross-border payments under SEPA.

This will also enable corporates to improve the "straight-through-processing" of payment instructions, and benefit from lower cost Euro payments.

Capturing the correct beneficiary bank account and payment routing information for processing cross-border and international payments can be time-consuming and costly. Bank Wizard, Experian's global validation software, also allows RBS corporate customers to instantaneously validate account details and find the correct Bank Identifier Code (BIC) in up to 228 countries and territories worldwide.

Using Bank Wizard, RBS' corporate customers will reduce the costs and delays associated with reprocessing failed payments, whilst at the same time improving customer service levels. Corporates will also find payment routing more effective by moving away from higher cost wire payments to lower cost SEPA or automatic clearing house (ACH) payments worldwide.

Wilco Dado, head of global payments at RBS, said the move would help customers "mitigate against the cost and risk associated with continual changes in the global payments market".

Corporate customers, he said, would be able to "validate and convert bulk data files and validate bank account data at the point of data entry". He added: "As a result, customers will be able to successfully route payments via SEPA or other routing mechanisms, whilst completing any missing information required for worldwide payments."

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