IBAN-BIC Conversion: SWIFT Offer
- SWIFT commercialises a software designed to convert and verify SEPA identifiers (BIC, IBAN) exploiting its “BICPlusIBAN Directory” correspondence base. This tool enables business treasurers to validate the bank’s identifier shown in a given IBAN. It then sets-up the correspondence between BIC and IBAN and validates a BIC or calculates it.
- This software tool can also build a repository of financial institution information in their CRM/ERP systems.
- This tool has no rival as it is updated in real-time through the interbank database managed by SWIFT. Its users will then benefit from the same conditions as the banks commercialising the same offer. SWIFT directly competes with its own members as well as with the service providers positioned on this market.
- Considering the significant number of banking references that need to be converted to SEPA, this service comes in addition to the banks’ resources rather than cannibalising them. The banks will have a lot to work on with all the other aspects of the SEPA payment migration for each customer company: all the more with the SCT migration end-date supposedly set in 18 months.
- Rating will still be a means for banks to keep their customers because SWIFT’s services are expensive: from 3,700 dollars for a unique user license to 47,500 for an illumined world license.