# Incorrect order in IBAN code: IBAN + SORTCODE + ACCNTNUMBER



## XKezzerX (10 Jun 2009)

Hello...

A friend has recently sent me an international bank transfer from France (his country) to the UK (my country).

However, after 3days of no deposit I began wondering why it hadn't arrived and I've come to a possible problem.

An IBAN code SHOULD look like this from what I've read:

IBAN + SORTCODE + ACCNTNUMBER

However, I gave him it in this order:

IBAN + ACCNTNUMBER + SORTCODE




Since I have gave my friend the IBAN code in the wrong order, will this have screwed up the payment? The funds from his bank account have already been taken...

How do I go about correcting this? Who do I contact and what do I say? How long will it take to rectify this?

Thanks for any help you can provide - I appreciate it very much so.


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## TarfHead (10 Jun 2009)

*Re: Problem(?) while receiving a bank transfer (help!)*

If the wrong IBAN was specified when the payment was being initiated, the payment _should have_ been rejected in the payer bank (i.e. France). 

Your friend's bank _should have_ the funds, even if they're not in his account.

The general format of the IBAN is CCcd.... where CC is the ISO Country Code (e.g. FR France, IR Ireland, GB Great Britain), and cd is a 2 character value (check digits) that contribute to the whole value passing validation. If the Sort code and Account Number are in the wrong sequence, the whole IBAN is invalid.

Unless the validatiuon resulted in a false positive, which is highly unlikely, though not impossible


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## XKezzerX (10 Jun 2009)

*Re: Problem(?) while receiving a bank transfer (help!)*

My friend said that the funds have been taken from his account which I presume means that the transfer has been sent.

What shall I do to rectify this issue?


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## rory22 (10 Jun 2009)

*Re: Problem(?) while receiving a bank transfer (help!)*

The funds will more than likely take a bit of time to clear the system. If it has left your friends account it has probably been transferred to the banks international department for processing before it is sent on to you (there would always be a time differance between leaving one account and appearing in another from my experiance). If a mistake is noticed it should be returned to the original account. It will not disappear into thin air although I can understand people not trusting banks at the moment! Why not have him contact his bank with the details? They should be able to clarify it quite quickly.


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## mathepac (10 Jun 2009)

*Re: Problem(?) while receiving a bank transfer (help!)*



TarfHead said:


> If the wrong IBAN was specified when the payment was being initiated, the payment _should have_ been rejected in the payer bank (i.e. France).
> 
> Your friend's bank _should have_ the funds, even if they're not in his account...


Agreed. The first place to search is the originating (French) bank

The IBAN validation processes are very thorough (there are on-line stand-alone 'validators' freely available), but they are dependant on the the two-character ISO country identifier at the start for example - 

Great Britain (22 character) IBAN format:  GBkk BBBB SSSS SSCC CCCC CC (Where B = alphabetical bank code, S = sort code, C = account No.)

France (27 character) IBAN format: FRkk BBBB BGGG GGCC CCCC CCCC CKK (Where B = bank code, G = code guichet (branch identifier), C = account No., K = key.) 

kk after the two character ISO country code represents the check digits calculated from the rest of the IBAN characters after they have been validated.

BTW most Irish banks display valid IBANs at the top of your statement.


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