We’re proud to announce that Safenetpay has joined Wise’s Accept my IBAN campaign. Standing alongside the likes of Klarna, N26, Monese, Starling Bank & Revolut, we’re pledging our commitment to ending IBAN discrimination.
IBAN discrimination is when a bank or company doesn’t accept your IBAN because it’s not from the same country in which the bank or company is based, commonly referred to as a ‘local bank account’. For example, if you want to pay your electricity bill in Spain using your French IBAN: your Spanish utilities provider would be guilty of IBAN discrimination if they didn’t accept your non-Spanish account number.
While it may seem legitimate that you cannot pay using account details from another country, the practice is banner under current EU legislation. Since 2014 all EU and EEA member states (including the UK & Switzerland) cannot reject a payment made using a SEPA IBAN. If a business refuses to accept payment because it will only accept a local IBAN, we advise you to remind them that they are obliged to accept IBANs from other SEPA countries under Article 9 of SEPA Regulation.
As part of the campaign, you can now visit acceptmyiban.org to report any cases of IBAN discrimination you experience. All cases are submitted anonymously and Accept my IBAN will pass the details of your case onto the relevant authorities, regardless of geographical location.
We recommend victims to gather documented proof of IBAN discrimination, whether that’s written, a screenshot or any other interaction you’ve had with the merchant or organisation. This will help better support your case when eventually presented to the relevant authorities.
The more cases that are together, the more countries will be forced to act.
United Kingdom
