Virtual IBANs

Payment by bank transfer requires the customer making the payment to provide the bank details (IBAN + BIC + account holder’s name), the payment amount, and the transfer reference.

If the reference number is missing or formatted incorrectly (whether due to the customer or the customer’s bank’s system), the payee must manually review the received transfer to match it to the correct invoice and customer account.

CentralPay allows you to provide a different virtual IBAN to each of your customers (Customer) or on each of your invoices (PaymentRequest). Thus, when a transfer is received, CentralPay automatically identifies the sender and can reconcile the invoice for you based on the virtual IBAN used by your customer, even if there is an error in the reference number.

A virtual IBAN is identical in every way to a standard IBAN, which makes the process completely transparent for your customers.

With this service, you will be able to:

• To be notified instantly when a customer has paid you via bank transfer
• Automate your internal alerts and customer follow-ups (via the notification service)
• To automate the reconciliation of your payments in your accounting or billing solutions (ERP, etc.)
• For platforms and marketplaces: to easily identify the merchant receiving the payment and transfer the funds to them

You can create CentralPay Virtual IBANs from various services on the platform:

• From the Customer service department
• From the SCT Transaction department
• From the PaymentRequest department

ℹ️ Each payment or e-money account comes with its own dedicated virtual IBAN by default

1. Check the virtual IBAN for your accounts

You can find the virtual IBAN for your accounts in the Merchant Portal Administration Accounts IBAN/BIC:

It is also possible to query the CentralPay API using the /bankAccount endpoint

Access:

2. Create a Virtual IBAN for a specific customer

You can create a virtual IBAN for a specific customer when creating a new Customer or when updating an existing customer.

To do this, you must enter the UUID of the payment account into the “walletIdForIban” field—the account into which you want to receive the funds.

You can find it under Merchant Portal Administration Accounts UUID:

Access:

In return, you will receive the “iban” and “bic” values in field bankAccounts, which make up your Customer‘s virtual IBAN.

ℹ️ The BIC for IBANs issued by CentralPay is CEAYFR22

3. Creation of a Virtual IBAN Dedicated to an SCT Transaction

Just as with a customer, you can create a virtual IBAN specific to a bank transfer transaction when creating an SCT transaction.

ℹ️ As a reminder, CentralPay automatically creates an SCT transaction when you receive a transfer to your primary virtual IBAN or a customer’s virtual IBAN. However, you can create an SCT transaction in advance to assign it a dedicated virtual IBAN and a custom reference, for example. 

To do this, you must enter the UUID of the payment account into the “ibanWalletId” field, the account into which you want to receive the funds.

You can find it under Merchant Portal Administration Accounts UUID:

Access:

In return, you will receive the “iban” and “bic” values in field bankAccounts, which make up the Virtual IBAN for your SCT Transaction.

ℹ️ A virtual IBAN assigned to an SCT transaction is no longer valid once the SCT transaction has been paid in full. However, it is possible to receive multiple smaller transfers to the same IBAN to make up the full amount of the SCT transaction. 

Please note that if a received transfer exceeds the amount of the SCT Transaction, it will still be accepted. You will need to issue a partial refund to return the overpayment to your customer.  

4. Using Virtual IBANs in Payment Requests

You can use Customer Virtual IBANs or SCT Transactions through the payment request service if you accept the “SCT Transaction” payment method.

You can select the type of Virtual IBAN you want to display in your payment requests from the “Priority Viban” field in your point-of-sale settings. If you select:

• SCT: The payment request will automatically generate a virtual IBAN specific to the SCT transaction
• Client: The payment request will use the customer’s virtual IBAN if they already have one; otherwise, it will automatically generate one.

ℹ️ For payment requests using a vIBAN submitted exclusively via SCT Transaction: If you cancel the payment request, the associated vIBAN will no longer be accessible. As a result, any transfer received at that vIBAN will be automatically returned to the sender.