TL; DR – Quick Summary
- Currencycloud introduced additional validation checks for payers and beneficiaries on 31 January 2024.
- These changes affect how clients submit payer and beneficiary information, in name, date of birth (DoB), and address fields.
- These additional validations ensure greater accuracy and improved security of transactions.
Why did we do this?
Payment data is a key requirement when moving money around the world. And, as we are doing this more, the quality of payment data we process is becoming increasingly important. Organizations throughout the whole financial industry ecosystem are moving towards safer and more robust practices. This not only improves the management of the data, but ensures businesses are meeting all their regulatory obligations.
Currencycloud is part of this ecosystem, so we are added additional validation checks on some of our payment data to ensure its quality.
What changed?
We enhanced our validation process for the following fields:
1. First Name and Last Name
These fields below should not contain initials alone, company signifiers or numeric characters:
- payer_first_name
- payer_last_name
- beneficiary_first_name
- beneficiary_last_name
Initials: We require full names and will not accept only an initial in the first name or last name field for individuals. Each name field must contain at least one full name part.
| First Name | Last Name | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| Joe | B. | ❌ |
| J. | Bloggs | ❌ |
| Joe | Bloggs | ✅ |
| Joe M. | Bloggs | ✅ |
| Joe | M. Bloggs | ✅ |
This applies only for payers and beneficiaries of type individual.
Numeric Characters: Individual's names should not include any numbers. Company names, while they can include numbers, should not be made up entirely of numbers.
| First Name | Last Name | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| Joe | 12B | ❌ |
| J121 | Bloggs | ❌ |
| Joe | Bloggs | ✅ |
| Joe M. | Bloggs | ✅ |
| Joe | M. Bloggs | ✅ |
This applies only for payers and beneficiaries of type individual.
| Company Name | Decision |
|---|---|
| 12314353 | ❌ |
| Acme 12 Ltd. | ✅ |
This applies only for payers and beneficiaries of type company.
Company Signifiers: We do not accept company signifiers in the Last Name field for payers and beneficiaries of type individual.
A company signifier is a term or abbreviation that identifies the type of business entity or corporation. This is usually added at the end of a company's name.
We validate against common signifiers from the UK and the US for all payers and beneficiaries. For companies not from the UK or the US, we also validate against their local list of company signifiers, if available.
| Country | Company Signifier | Description |
|---|---|---|
| GB | LTD, LIMITED, PLC, LLP, LP, INC, CO | Applied to all |
| US | INC, CORP, CORPORATION, LLC, CO, LTD, PC, LLP |
Applied to all
|
| KR | JUSIKHOESA, YUHANHOESA, HAPJAHOESA | If payer or beneficiary is resident. |
| AU | PTY LTD, LTD, NO LIABILITY, NL, CO-OP, INC, TRUST, ASSOCIATION | If payer or beneficiary is resident. |
| FR | SA, SARL, SAS, SNC, SCM, SCOP, GIE | If payer or beneficiary is resident. |
| ES | SA, SL, SC, SCOM, SCOOP, SLL | If payer or beneficiary is resident. |
| DE | AG, GMBH, KG, OHG, EG, GMBH & CO KG | If payer or beneficiary is resident. |
| IT | SPA, SRL, SAS, SNC, SCARL | If payer or beneficiary is resident. |
| LT | UAB, AB, MB, II, VŠĮ | If payer or beneficiary is resident. |
This is the list of company signifiers that we validate against for various countries.
Note: Currencycloud reserves the right to update this list as and when it sees fit.
| First Name | Last Name | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| Joe | Bloggs Ltd. | ❌ |
| Joe | Bloggs Co. | ❌ |
This applies only for payers and beneficiaries of type individual.
2. Address
If an address is required for the beneficiary or payer, the fields below should not be populated with only numeric characters:
- payer_address
- payer_state_or_province
- payer_city
- beneficiary_address
- beneficiary_state_or_province
- beneficiary_city
| Address | State or Province | City | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Acme Road | 123424 | 1415352 | ❌ |
| 12 Acme Road | 123424 | LASD1415352 | ❌ |
| 123424 | Illinois | LASD1415352 | ❌ |
| 12 Acme Road | Illinois | LASD1415352 | ✅ |
| 12 Acme Road | Illinois | Chicago | ✅ |
This applies for payers and beneficiaries of both types - individual and company.
3. Date of Birth (DOB)
The DOB for the beneficiary should not exceed 125 years and cannot be a date in the future.
- beneficiary_date_of_birth
This applies only for beneficiaries of type individual.
What happens if I submit data that does not comply?
If the information provided does not meet these criteria, you will receive an error message and need to resubmit the information.
If you wish to submit a payment with a "non-standard" payer or beneficiary name (any name that does not comply with the new rules), please contact our Customer Support team.
When will this be implemented?
These validation checks will be live from 31 January 2024 on both Currencycloud Direct and our APIs. Initially, these checks will only apply to Euro payments, with plans to include additional currencies in the future.
Clients can test these changes in our Demo environment from 17 January 2024.
What do I need to do?
If you are already providing any of the above information when making payments, please ensure it meets the new requirements to avoid errors once the changes are live.
If you want to test your data from 17 January, please contact your Customer Success Manager (CSM) for access to our Demo environment.
If you are using our APIs, please update your processes and ensure you are following best practice setup.
For any questions or additional assistance, please contact your Customer Success Manager.