Recovery transactions

The Procedure for Undue Payments (POB – Procedure Onverschuldigde Betalingen in Dutch) may apply in the event of an error where the payer has accidentally transferred money to the wrong IBAN.

The Procedure for Reversal Entries (Procedure Herstelboekingen in Dutch) can be initiated when, for example, a large business customer has submitted a batch of incorrect transfers or when a bank itself has made incorrect transfers. Examples include a company that has accidentally transferred all salary payments twice or a bank that has accidentally executed a batch of transfers twice.

Procedure for Undue Payments

A transfer from a customer that the bank has executed correctly is irrevocable: the payer and the banks involved cannot reverse the transfer. Only the recipient can voluntarily transfer the amount back to the payer.

If the payer does not know who the recipient was or if the recipient does not respond to a request for repayment from the payer, the payer can ask their own bank to submit such a request to the recipient via the recipient’s bank. The interbank Undue Payments Procedure describes how banks should handle such requests.

Members of the Dutch Payments Association can request the full Procedure for Undue Payments via giraal@betaalvereniging.nl

Procedure for Reversal Entries

Sometimes a large institution, such as a municipality, accidentally submits a batch of incorrect transfers to its bank, or a bank itself makes a mistake in one or more transfers.

These types of obvious incorrect transfers can be reversed by the receiving banks at the request of the paying bank. This happens, for example, after unintentional double transfers or after a technical error. The rules for this are laid down in the SCT Rulebook, the formal rules and agreements for European transfers of the EPC (European Payments Council).

Members of the Dutch Payments Association can request the complete Recovery Booking Procedure via giraal@betaalvereniging.nl