Just because a customer is not entering a BIC, does not mean it is not involved. The BIC is still part of the informations, the data standard, that is exchanged between financial institutions when they are making a transfer under SEPA regulations.
You mentioned Target2, the mysterious mega-database behind a lot of transactions in the EU. And all the banks and financial institutions are represented in that database: by their BIC. The BIC is still and will be in the foreseeable future one of the two codes that are used to transfer money. The biggest endeavor with SEPA was to make formerly national data standards compatible. This is why we see different lengths of IBANs, it is because national IBANs are built based on different national systems. (And the beauty of it is that this cleverly designed set of rules also makes it compatible with international transfers using SWIFT codes.)
What happens now when one enters an IBAN for a transfer is that the bankâs system fetches the corresponding BIC and adds that information to the set of data sent into the mysterious matrix of clearing houses and national banks where it hopefully finds its way, guided by IBANs and BICs.
What I donât get is why people seem to be so frustraded about this. This is complex. And the system Revolut stitches together at an amazing pace is even more complex. This is all going to be resolved. It might have to do with banks not updating their databases in real time. It might have to do with Revolut choosing to try out a new data standard that is not completely implemented by major players in this game. Maybe they missed a form. Or they didnât. I donât care.
The important outcome of this is that these hiccups donât make Revolutâs product useless (one can still use the old method for top ups). And that legacy banks take their customerâs concerns serious (people reported that it didnât work but did work a couple of days later after they talked to their banks). And last that Revolut takes their customerâs concerns serious and acknowledged that it is not working like they hoped it would, whether itâs their fault or someone elseâs, and that they are on it.
All the information out there along with my tests confirms that iâm right.
If the bank is going to use the BIC it will have a separate field that you have to fill in or it will be filled in automatically.
For some very strange reason someone might think, which is not strange to me at all, when i paste this revolut iban number the BIC field just disappears and the bank gets identified as REVOLUT LIMITED automatically. Why?
There is no BIC anywhere in the transaction details. I called bank tech support and they confirmed that you donât need BIC at all for SEPA transfers as all info needed is in the IBAN and it is impossible for the transfer to be lost.
Before this non issue i didnât pay attention, but i looked it up and all my Boon. top ups have no bic just the iban and they all went through.
As a matter of fact all of my SEPA transfers are missing that BIC field and all my non SEPA transfers have it. Why? Because for SEPA itâs not needed.
The BIC is filled in automatically, behind the curtain. That is the point I am trying to make.
Letâs dive into this. All valid SEPA transfers have to follow the SEPA data model. If they donât, it is not considered to be a SEPA transfer. With that regulation, Banks agreed on which informations they are going to exchange and how they are formatted. The SEPA standard itself is a sub-standard of ISO 20022.
Here is the latest version of the SEPA credit transfer scheme rulebook, published by the European payments counsil. This is the authority for this.
4.5.1/ 4.5.2: This dataset describes the content of the interbank payment message (mandatory unless otherwise indicated):
⢠01 The IBAN of the account of the Originator
⢠02 The name of the Originator
⢠03 The address of the Originator (Optional)
⢠04 The amount of the credit transfer in euro
⢠05 The Remittance Information (Optional)
⢠06 The BIC code of the Originator Bank
⢠08 The name of the Originator Reference Party (Optional)
⢠09 The identification code of the Originator Reference Party (Optional)
⢠10 The Originator identification code (Optional)
⢠20 The IBAN of the account of the Beneficiary
⢠21 The name of the Beneficiary
⢠22 The address of the Beneficiary (Optional)
⢠23 The BIC code of the Beneficiary Bank
⢠24 The Beneficiary identification code (Optional)
⢠28 The name of the Beneficiary Reference Party (Optional)
⢠29 The identification code of the Beneficiary Reference Party (Optional)
⢠40 The identification code of the SEPA electronic credit transfer Scheme
⢠41 The Originatorâs reference of the Credit Transfer Transaction
⢠42 The Settlement Date of the credit transfer
⢠43 The Originator Bankâs reference number of the credit transfer message
⢠44 The purpose of the credit transfer (Optional)
⢠45 The category purpose of the credit transfer (Optional)
Blame your banks. The only thing Revolut underestimated introducing these accounts is the number of banks using this old legacy software which does not honour rules for SEPA transfers and for SEPA transfers BIC IS NOT MANDATORY.
I called 2 banks and emailed 1 all of them said the same thing.
This is really tiring. Youâre right, you as a customer do not need the BIC to initiate a transfer. Everyone agrees with you here. Whatever you say here, the authority that designed the SEPA transfer payment scheme clearly says tha both BICs of the sender and the payee must be included in the message banks exchange for transfers. Banks do include them for you. Why are you so hooked on this idea that everything would magically work if only everyone would forget about that BIC.
By the way, for all thinking about trying the LT IBANs: Some other users reported about the money being sent back by Barcleyâs after several days. The reason why Barcleyâs rejected the correct SEPA transaction is unclear. One person claimed that his bank did even put a fee on the chargeback (Reason: SEPA chargebacks/transactions from countries not having the Euro, which is true for Revolut, must not be seen as SEPA-EURO transactions, even though they are in Euro, not sure if thatâs even legal).
However, Revolut does reimburse such fees, if the IBAN was correct.
So for the time being, better still use the Lloydâs IBAN to be sure, even if your bank accepts the LT solution.
This is perhaps not the right place, but I donât know how to PM you. Iâve made a bank transfer to my Revolut without adding the remark in pink, which I had to learn about in the FAQ that it is a necessity for your transfer to go through smoothly. Can you find my transaction and add the funds to my account? Please PM for extra info.
Edit: I tried to reply to the guy working for Revolut, sorry.
Did anyone get an update from Revolut (support, Twitter, e-mailâŚ) about the status of the new IBANs they want to roll out for this week? Is it still scheduled for this week?
Not even close my friend.Another disappointment by Revolut Team.I asked them about;and what I got is the by the end of the week answer changed into we working to make it asap.They had Rev Rally this week,they were too busy for UK IBAN.