Background
Currently the VOP Rulebook and the VOP API Specifications apply the industry standard definitions of the BIC (Business Identifier Code) : “An 8- or 11-character ISO code assigned by SWIFT and used to identify a financial institution in financial transactions.”. The YAML file defining the structure of the VOP API request and response using OpenAPI standards, defines the BIC using the following regular expression pattern: ^[A-Z]{6}[A-Z0-9]{2}([A-Z0-9]{3})?$. This pattern, in line with the definition of the BIC in the VOP Rulebook and API Specifications, technically allows the VOP implementations to use either 8 characters (BIC8 format) or 11 characters (BIC11 format) for a BIC identifying the VOP participants.
The VOP API Specifications indicate that for authorising a VOP request, the Responding PSP will verify if the combination of the Requesting PSP BIC (as received in the payload of the VOP request in the field requestingAgent) and the NAN received via the QWAC PSD2 certificate of the Requesting PSP is present in the EDS.
The VOP API Specifications also mention the Responding PSP BIC as a mandatory field in the VOP request (partyAgent field), but do not further specify any usage of this field.
On the other side, the EDS documentation specifies (see EDS Local File Specifications, EDS Graphical User Interface (GUI) guidelines, EDS API Specifications, EDS Onboarding and Registration Guide, YAML and XSD files of the EDS API) that the BIC used in the EDS must be in the 11-character format. This applies to both types of BICs stored in the EDS: participantBIC and accountHoldingBIC.
Clarification
To ensure a successful processing of the VOP messages and avoid rejections, it is strongly recommended to follow the below clarifications that will be made mandatory in the next version of the VOP scheme rulebook.
- To allow checking the presence of a Requesting PSP in the EDS, the BIC11 format is recommended to be used in the VOP requests (in the field requestingAgent). The Responding PSP or its RVM will search for the BIC11 requestingAgent from the VOP request, in the EDS Local File (participantBIC EDS field).
- To include the Responding PSP BIC in the VOP request, the BIC11 format is recommended to be used in in the field partyAgent of this request. The Requesting PSP will search for the API endpoint (URI) of the Responding PSP (to which the API request will be sent) by looking up the BIC derived from the payee’s IBAN in the EDS (field accountHoldingBIC) (see also https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/node/27606 “IBAN to BIC mapping clarifications”). This EDS field (accountHoldingBIC, stored in BIC11 format) – if found – should be copied into the partyAgent field of the VOP request.