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Switzerland Lodgments

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  • 11-04-2013 7:29pm
    #1
    aphex™
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,338 ✭✭✭


    Hi there,

    I have a friend working for a multi national and he's having trouble with payments in Switzerland.

    Basically, if you make a payment to any account in Switzerland (corporate or personal bank account) you have to have the account holder details correct. So I could make a payment to "Joe pBlogs" (obvious typo) and it would get bounced back. Same for incorrect address provided.

    What is the reason for this? Is this an implementation of some new legislation that's going to be rolled out to the rest of Europe?

    I would have thought the Swiss would be a bit "flexible" about lodgments like this, but they are the country with the most returned payments in the company. Refusal always due to incorrect payee but bank a/c numbers and sort code are OK.

    Anyone?


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    #2
    Jim2007
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 10,277 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jim2007


    Is there any reason why you are not just using the IBAN like everyone else??? Using the IBAN is the normal way for making payments over here. We process thousands of payments every day including some from Ireland and we've never have this kind of issue.

    The problems you are describing is the kind of thing we had years ago before the IBAN, when you needed to have all the details correctly before a payment would be processed correctly.


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    #3
    GerardKeating
    Registered Users Posts: 7,650 ✭✭✭GerardKeating


    Jim2007 wrote: »
    Is there any reason why you are not just using the IBAN like everyone else??? Using the IBAN is the normal way for making payments over here. We process thousands of payments every day including some from Ireland and we've never have this kind of issue.

    The problems you are describing is the kind of thing we had years ago before the IBAN, when you needed to have all the details correctly before a payment would be processed correctly.

    Some banks require the name of the Account holder, in addition to the BIC/IBAN and will bounce the payment if this is not correct.


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    #4
    Jim2007
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 10,277 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jim2007


    GerardKeating wrote: »
    Some banks require the name of the Account holder, in addition to the BIC/IBAN and will bounce the payment if this is not correct.

    That is only on the payer's side - when you give the instruction to your bank, on the receiving side all we need is the IBAN...


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    #5
    aphex™
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,338 ✭✭✭aphex™


    They might not use IBAN because they have business units in each country in Europe (and Switzerland). Perhaps they don't want to get hit with international charges if they use an international IBAN from the wrong country bank account?

    This could be a legacy issue, and this is an international company and procedures could have been formulated before costs of international transfers came down in the last few years?

    In any case I have an example. They wanted to pay a subsidiary of credit suisse. Let's call them Credit Suisse Business Systems and Admin SarL. So they get a rough email from the guys in Switzerland office of the bank account number and sort code and pass this on to the accounts payable people in the US. Account is with Credit Suisse branch but still gets rejected for slightly incorrect name of subsidiary.

    Also I can say that Post Bank seem to be worse than other banks for this. Think you have to have the payee office/home address on the payment transfer but with other banks it's just payee name. Again, only in Switzerland.

    I don't understand it really. I thought the account code and sort code would be unique and negate need for extra info like this? Also Swiss secrecy issues regarding bank holder name etc.


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