SEPA Transfer Reversal

A

axelstar

Registered User
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Hi All,

I have recently sold some digital goods online and had received payment from the recipient. The method of payment was via SEPA bank transfer, the recipient in question sent payment from a German bank to my Number 26 personal account (I am based in Ireland).

One week later, I find this payment had been reversed, the payment had been taken out of my account and was en-route back to the recipient (who had already received the goods). He apparently requested his bank to make this reversal to take place and my bank complied without question.

Is this lawful for the bank to do? I was not asked and I was not offered any prior consultation that this reversal was going to take effect? Nor was I contacted or asked about the situation. I know these sort of reversals are common with Paypal, but I though a SEPA bank transfer would be far more secure.

I would really appreciate if anyone had information about this or some knowledge in the area. I will be contacting legal advisors early next week to make a case against the recipient. But it just feels wrong that the bank can be complicate and so willing in facilitating a scammer's chargeback!
 
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Your bank account paid money to a bank in Germany?

Have you called your bank? I thought that they could not reverse such a transfer.

Brendan
 
Hi Brendan,

Thank you for your reply.

Indeed I have, they have been most unhelpful. They have basically said that it is not their problem and that they did nothing wrong in reversing the transfer without my approval. It seems perplexing that this can be the case.

I should add as it is misleading in my opening post, that my account was with Number 26 (a new bank backed by WireCard), so although I'm resident in Ireland and they have to abide by regulations in Ireland, it is a bank also based in Germany.
 
Hi Axelstar

Sorry for your trouble. I was intrigued by the issue and went searching. According to the SEPA Credit Transfer Rulebook apparently it is possible for a beneficiary bank (Number26/Wirecard in your case) to allow a recall of an incoming SEPA Credit Transfer within 10 business days of the original transfer and without reference to the beneficiary (you). Although, in their flowchart the beneficiary (you) is supposed to be asked for authorisation.

The link to the SEPA Credit Transfer Rulebook is:

The relevant section is CT-02.03 and it can be found on page 25.

Probably not what you wanted to hear. Also, it would seem that even had you used an Irish bank account to receive the funds that there is still a risk of recall up to ten business days after receipt. This seems way too open for abuse.

From Number26's terms and conditions complaints can also be made as follows:

"In addition, customers may make complaints at any time in writing or orally on the record to the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht), Graurheindorfer Strasse 108, 53117 Bonn and Marie-Curie-Straße 24-28, 60439 Frankfurt am Main, Germany or the European Central Bank, Sonnemannstreet 20, 60314 Frankfurt am Main, Germany, about breaches by the Bank of the German Payment Services Supervision Act (Zahlungsdienstaufsichtsgesetz – ZAG), Sections 675c – 676c of the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch – BGB) or Article 248 of the Act Introducing the German Civil Code (Einführungsgesetz zum Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuch – EGBGB)."
 
It's not that dissimilar from other type of electronic payments. For example, you can reverse a direct debit up to 8 weeks after the payment was made (as Irish Water are finding to their cost) and claim a chargeback on credit card transactions in certain cases, (and chargebacks are notoriously difficult for a seller to defend against)

Have you contacted the purchaser to find out why they did this?, it could be that they perceive the goods to be not as described or may be claiming non-receipt
 
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