You may have seen a “virtual IBAN” reason for your scores recently, but what does that mean? Despite what you may think, it does not mean that this IBAN is related to an online bank account.
Definition of a virtual IBAN
The virtual IBAN (or VIBAN) is used by the companies to centralize and facilitate payments. A company can indeed create as many VIBANs as they want and link them to their “real” IBAN. VIBANs are then assigned to each payment sender for the funds to be forwarded to the company bank account.
Doing so, the payment sender does not have to fill a large amount of information for the recipient to identify what is the payment related to. The virtual IBAN data is shown in bank statement with the dedicated labels/tags/flags, according to what was chosen by the company.
Advantages of VIBANs
Payment senders can easily send money and do not take the risk to mistakenly share a wrong identification number that they would also have had to look for. In short, it is easier, quicker and safer. Beneficiaries can easily identify the reason and the source of the payment received.
Controls and certifications on VIBAN
Sis ID does not process certification on VIBANs. If you carry out a check on an IBAN indicated as incorrect and invalidated by SEPAmail DIAMOND (non-existent account or closed account), it may be a VIBAN: in this case, we suggest you contact your third party, who can contact his bank to obtain an IBAN and share it with you. You can then check this IBAN again.