Deutsche Bank announces the launch of its SWIFT Beneficiary Account Validation (BAV) service, enabling clients to verify payee account details before an international payment instruction is sent. This minimises the risk of payment failure due to incorrect data, removing a key point of friction in cross-border transactions.

The BAV solution enables Deutsche Bank to ensure that payments from its clients are arriving at the intended beneficiary using the correct account details, by validating the information centrally via SWIFT. It also allows the Bank to support other participating banks by responding to incoming account validation requests – ultimately helping to create a secure and efficient cross-border payments systems where all parties can send payments with greater confidence.

The solution uses a real-time Application Programming Interface (API) to check the existence of beneficiaries from key account details, validating the end beneficiary before executing the actual payment. This has the potential to significantly reduce time spent by both banks and corporates on the management of fraudulent payments and payments made with incorrect details. The use of APIs also makes it easy for the service to be plugged into existing processes on the corporate client side, including supplier onboarding or vendor management.

Deutsche Bank offers the solution on a global basis. Having centralised core banking activities into a single platform over the past few years, the Bank has been able to build a straightforward API layer on top to incorporate SWIFT’s new BAV service, enabling it to validate accounts across its global markets in real time.

In addition, the BAV service is expected to be incorporated into the Bank’s online cash management channel in the next year, where clients could pre-validate their beneficiary accounts while the payments are being created online.

“The BAV service not only addresses a key market problem prevalent today, but also brings significant operational benefits in terms of end-to-end efficiency and fraud reduction to our corporate clients,” says Jose-M Buey, Global Head of Core Platforms and Accounts Solutions, Deutsche Bank Corporate Bank. “It is also a clear example of how API technology can be used to create an innovative solution that perfectly aligns with our strategy to build a real-time API based accounts platform. We are pleased to be participating in this initiative as one of early adopters of this service and happy to see it is gaining momentum among our corporate clients.”

According to SWIFT, the BAV service currently has more than 70 banks signed up worldwide, and Deutsche Bank’s launch will help further strengthen the overall coverage of the service. In the next quarter, SWIFT has plans to continue improving this coverage, onboarding more banks and taking more live with the service.

“We firmly believe the pre-validation service will add significant value to our financial institution clients, building on the positive gpi client experience already in place. BAV addresses an extremely important pain-point in cross-border payments and will help increase straight-through processing (STP) ratios while reducing fraud and exception handling,” notes Marc Recker, Global Head of Product, Institutional Cash Management, Deutsche Bank Corporate Bank.

“We are delighted to see more and more banks joining the BAV service – especially those who are choosing to go live alongside us at Deutsche Bank,” adds Recker. “It’s up to us as major transaction banks to be the first movers and demonstrate the power of the service overall, and we look forward to seeing how the network grows and evolves as more medium-sized and small banks join to provide comprehensive coverage.”

Deutsche Bank provides retail and private banking, corporate and transaction banking, lending, asset and wealth management products and services as well as focused investment banking to private individuals, small and medium-sized companies, corporations, governments and institutional investors. Deutsche Bank is the leading bank in Germany with strong European roots and a global network.