What is IBAN discrimination?
In short, IBAN discrimination takes place when a company/institution within the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) does not accept an IBAN issued by a payment service provider, which is based in another SEPA member country. Such company/institution will usually require you to input an IBAN starting only with the domestic country code of a specific state or an IBAN in a domestic format. This case constitutes an infringement of Article 9 of the SEPA Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 260/2012), which prohibits the different treatment of IBANs, as long as the IBANs are reachable via the SEPA scheme.
How can you deal with IBAN discrimination?
There are several steps to follow in the event that you are faced with the issue of IBAN discrimination. These include:
- Inform the company/institution which has refused to complete your transfer that they are in breach of Article 9 of the SEPA Regulation.
- Send a formal written complaint, if the company/institution do not respond to your initial complaint.
- For non-compliance with your formal written complaint, get in touch with the relevant regulatory body or competent authority in your country.
- Inform myPOS about the matter by emailing us at help@mypos.com.
For templates of the formal letters of complaint reporting IBAN discrimination, see here.