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How to transact internationally

A comprehensive guide to using our international business banking portal to making payments and transfers.

Online payment instructions

  • Select the ‘From Account’ and the country of the beneficiary bank
  • The ‘To currency’ will default to the local currency of the beneficiary bank
  • If you wish to pay in another currency, select the ‘Change’ button next to the ‘To Currency’ field and select the currency from the drop-down list
  • Enter either the ‘From’ or ‘To’ amount and complete the remaining Payment and Beneficiary details

Depending on the country and currency, some or all of these beneficiary details are mandatory:

  • Beneficiary name
  • Beneficiary Account number or IBAN number
  • SWIFT code and/or Sort/Branch code
  • Branch address
  • Beneficiary reference
  • Country code of beneficiary bank
  • Account number or IBAN*
  • SWIFT code **
  • Branch code – only applicable for banks in the UK, Australia, South African and the US
  • Branch codes and SWIFT codes should be entered with no spaces or hyphens.

* IBAN is mandatory when making EUR payments to all European countries, including the UK. The first 2 alpha characters of the IBAN should match the country code selected for the beneficiary bank.

** A SWIFT code is a unique 8 or 11 character, alpha or alpha numeric code used worldwide to identify banks and bank branches. These codes must be used when making payments in any currency to banks located in any destination, with the exception of GBP payments within the UK. Where a payment in GBP is being made to a bank outside the UK, it will require a valid SWIFT code.

Unless there is a valid SWIFT or Branch code (sort code for UK banks) you will be unable to make the payment online.

Inter-account and inter-customer transfer instructions

For inter-account transfers

  • Choose the ‘From Account’ and ‘To Account’ before entering the transfer details
  • Transfer details include
    • the transfer currency, which can be in either the From Account or To Account currencies
    • the transfer amount, again either the from or to amount
    • The references that will appear on account statements
  • Once these instruction details have been completed, click on Continue to display the confirmation page.

For inter-customer transfers

  • Choose the ‘From Account’ and ‘To Customer’ and ‘To Account’ before entering the transfer details
  • Transfer details include
    • the transfer currency, which can be in either the From Account or To Account currencies
    • the transfer amount, again either the from or to amount
    • The references that will appear on account statements
  • Once these instruction details have been completed, click on Continue to display the confirmation page.

Stored Payments

You can save recipient details for regular payments at account, customer or Group level. Stored Payments still require the Security Code to authorise transactions.

Create a Stored Payment

  • Click on the Create New Stored Payment button
  • All fields except the From account number, branch address, beneficiary reference and amount are mandatory and must be completed

View Stored Payment

  • Click on the reference number of the chosen record from the Stored Payments list.

Amend Stored Payment

  • Click on the Amend button to display the payment details
  • All details can be amended by any user with transaction rights, if the originating user has not placed restrictions on changes
  • Stored Payments can only be amended using the Stored Payments Amend function and not through Pending Transactions

Delete Stored Payment

All Users who have transaction rights can delete Stored Payments.

  • Click on the Delete button to display the details
  • Click on the Confirm button

Pending Transactions

Pending Transactions are those still awaiting authorisation, and Stored Payments.

View a Pending Transaction

This function is available to all Users.

  • Click on the transaction reference number

Amend a Pending Transaction

  • Click on the Amend button to display the transaction
  • Amendments can only be made to transactions that are awaiting authorisation
  • It is not possible to amend a partially authorised transaction
  • Only the originating user can amend transactions
  • Should the originating user be unavailable, the transaction should be deleted using the Delete function, and a new transaction created

For single currency Transfers, only the transfer narrative and the amount can be amended. For cross currency Transfers, only the narratives can be amended.

For single currency Payments, the beneficiary, payment details and the amount can be amended. For cross currency Payments, only the beneficiary details may be amended.

Delete a Pending Transaction.

All users who have transaction rights can delete a transaction. All pending transactions, including part-authorised transactions, can be deleted. It is not possible to delete a fully authorised transaction.

  • Click on the Delete button to display the transaction details
  • Click on the Confirm button