Incorrect IBAN

AnRothar

Did a transfer recently using the IBAN that I was sent.

I cut and pasted what I was sent and crosschecked before I validated it.

Happy out, as no issues.

But i am now curious.

Suppose someone was doing it manually and say mistyped a number and didn't spot it.

Clerical error so to speak.

Would it be easy for them to get their money back.

fritzelly

if valid Iban and it landed in someone's account then tough luck and hope they give the money back

AnRothar

if valid Iban and it landed in someone's account then tough luck and hope they give the money back

🙄

lau1247

Don't they check name along with IBAN at the receiver end?

Why check the IBAN and name?

Introduced by the European Payments Council (EPC), the IBAN Name Check is a verification service designed to ensure that the name of a transfer beneficiary matches the provided IBAN.

Initially announced as mandatory only for instant payments (IP), many payment service providers are likely to apply this check uniformly to standard SEPA transfers (SCT).

Link

steve-o

If you mistype a single digit while entering an IBAN then it won't be a valid iBAN. The bank will reject it.

AnRothar

If you mistype a single digit while entering an IBAN then it won't be a valid iBAN. The bank will reject it.

To the best of my knowledge an IBAN is simply the Branch sort code and account number.

I was wondering if its possible that an other account within the same branch might have a similar number string but only one digit out.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123790721#Comment_123790721

Doesn't that presuppose that the account number segment (usually the last 8 digits) is randomly generated and not incremented?

If you get the sort code or bank indentifier wrong then it'll definitely fail

blinking

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123791220#Comment_123791220

The two numbers after IE are check digits

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123790710#Comment_123790710

It use to be done before SEPA and it was a PIA, because people regularly used variations of the actual account name - P/Pat/Paddy/Patrick Murphy, all of which could be wrong as the acocunt might be say P. A. Murphy and so on. I can't see many institutions being motivated to bring it back. And clients having to wait days or weeks on a stuck transaction is probably not going to go well either.

bennyx_o

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123792256#Comment_123792256

Name verification is being brought back as part of SEPA Instant transfers and, I believe, is mandatory from October 2025. Link here

Minier81

If the typo you make happens to be another actual iban then the transfer will go though and I can tell you from experience the bank cannot easily fix this. I transfered to a wrong account last year, i rang my bank within 2 mins of my mistake and there was nothing they could do, their advice was that I contact the account holder that I transferred to. Luckily the person I sent it to transferred it back once it arrived but I was a few days without the money.

user060916

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123792324#Comment_123792324

How did you get the account holders information?

mykrodot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123792324#Comment_123792324

that doesn't really make sense though. You were transferring money to someone, you had their IBAN but transferred it to another IBAN, or did you just make a mistake copying it and entered a wrong digit?

How could you have rectified it unless you also knew the account holder of the incorrect IBAN? Did you just transfer it to another account holder in your bank "payees"….i.e.someone you new? That's a different issue to the one the OP was writing about.

Thin White Duck

Thanks OP, you've reminded me of a long lost memory. Back in the early 90's I was working in a High Street bank in the UK. When accounts are closed (at least back then) the number could be re-used after 7 years. Somebody had a Standing Order set up to a well known watch brand that was being paid into a personal account with the reused number. Somebody got a windfall in excess of £100,000 and was never seen again.

Minier81

I made a mistake and transferred to a completely wrong iban, it was a company I had dealth with several years previously. I was naively sprised at the time that the bank could do zero to help. It wasn't someone I knew and I was honestly terrified that I would never get the money back.

The op asked "Would it be easy for them to get their money back" and my message is no.

I appreciate my experience was different to one digital being wrong but it was still a trasnfer to an incorrect iban.

coylemj

The check digits in positions three and four ('IENN' at the start of an Irish IBAN) are generated from the other characters in the IBAN. If you miskey one digit, the check digits for the IBAN that you have typed will be different from the correct one so your bank will reject the transfer because it's to an invalid IBAN. If you miskey two digits, there is only a 1% chance that the two check digits for the incorrect IBAN are the same as for the correct one.

So you would have to be both careless and extremely unlucky to manage to type two or more incorrect characters but still end up with a valid IBAN.

28064212

IBANs are extremely resistant to typos. Take this IBAN (which is a valid IBAN, but not a valid account): IE 70 BOFI 900017 12345678

None of these typos are valid IBANs:

IE 71 BOFI 900017 12345678
IE 70 BOF1 900017 12345678
IE 70 BOFI 900117 12345678
IE 70 BOFI 900017 12345677
IE 7O BOFI 900017 12345678

In the vast majority of systems, these typos will be caught before you even submit the IBAN. IBAN validation is trivial for a computer to perform, and can be done without access to any external resource. It's no more difficult than verifying that you've put a valid email address* in on a web form asking for your contact details. Even in a system that doesn't do upfront validation, the next link in the payment chain will instantly reject the transaction.

The chances of a typo also being a valid IBAN is incredibly tiny. Typos are not a problem for IBANs.

A far more likely scenario to cause issues is the one Minier81 described - copying an entire IBAN from the wrong source. If you do that, the transfer will go through, and you are reliant on the recipient agreeing to return the money. It's effectively the same thing as willingly handing a wad of cash to the wrong person - it's their money now, you can't just take it back

* Actually, email validation is way harder than IBAN validation (due to there being far more edge cases and far less standardisation)

loyatemu

I've read a couple of stories of this happening in the UK, and the outcome was that it was a legal matter between the sender and the receiver, the bank and police wouldn't get involved unless there was evidence of fraud.

coylemj

Poster 28064212 said in post #17 ....

If you do that, the transfer will go through, and you are reliant on the recipient agreeing to return the money. It's effectively the same thing as willingly handing a wad of cash to the wrong person - it's their money now, you can't just take it back

That is not true and never was. If you acquire property or cash by a mistake on the part of the owner, you are legally obliged to see if the rightful owner can be discovered by taking 'reasonable steps'. Failing to do so makes you guilty of the crime of theft by finding.

If a large amount of money suddenly drops into your bank account, you would be obliged to contact the bank, tell them you know nothing about this and see if they can sort it out. Multiple cases where this happened and the recipient simply went on a spending spree have ended up in court and a criminal conviction.

Two local examples ..

A teenager who had “an incredible temptation presented to him” two days after his 19th birthday when his former employer mistakenly lodged almost €20,000 into account has been jailed for theft

A woman went on a “massive spending spree” after a bank accidentally deposited €51,000 into her bank account.

28064212

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123796628#Comment_123796628

The point was not about what obligations the recipient had. The point is that the sender has no way to recall the money. Note that in both cases you quoted, the vast majority of the money was not retrieved

Addmagnet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123792711#Comment_123792711

Yeah, surely that is a massive GDPR breach by the bank?

If I had a stranger contacting me in similar circumstances I'd be getting all legal with the bank!

28064212

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123797216#Comment_123797216

Poster already addressed that:

it was a company I had dealth with several years previously

It wasn't a typo, they just copied the completely wrong IBAN

dohouch

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123795675#Comment_123795675

@28064212

Thanks for your knowledge sharing.

Kinda thought that these outrageous 22 digit burdens, for us Carbon based bots, would have to contain some check function. I can now sleep better 😴🛏️