Glossary · Payment methods
IBAN
Also called International Bank Account Number
An IBAN is a standard international bank account number of up to 34 characters, required for euro payments across SEPA.
An IBAN (International Bank Account Number) starts with a two-letter country code and two check digits, followed by the domestic account details. Length varies by country: 18 characters in the Netherlands, 22 in Germany and the UK, 27 in France.
The check digits let banks and software catch typos before money is sent, which is why an IBAN with one wrong character is usually rejected rather than paid to a stranger.
Print your IBAN on every invoice, grouped in fours for readability. If you ever change banks, tell customers in a way they can verify — changed bank details are the core of invoice fraud.
Example
A Dutch firm’s invoice shows its 18-character IBAN starting “NL”. A German client pays it as a standard SEPA credit transfer, entering only the IBAN.