With Numeral, companies can verify their external accounts prior to sending or collecting payments. Verifying external accounts is key to maximising payment success rate and reducing fraud.

Verifications include:

Account number structure
Bank code
Account holder, based on name and / or company registration number
Account status

This feature is available in the dashboard and through the API.

Verifications

Verification	Description
Account number structure `valid_account_number`	Numeral verifies the account number structure, including: Check digits Length, depending on country Authorised characters
Bank code `matching_account_number_and_bank_code`	Numeral verifies that the bank code matches the account number. In case it does not match, the correct bank code is returned
Account holder `matching_account_holder`	For supported banks, Numeral retrieves the account holder from the bank holding the account and compares it your data.
Account status `active_account`	For supported banks, Numeral retrieves the account status from the bank holding the account.

Use the feature

Verify an external account in the dashboard

To verify an external account in the dashboard, create an external account or go to an existing external account and click on Verify account under the Actions menu.

Verify an external account with the API

To verify an external account with the API, use the Verify external account endpoint.

The process is asynchronous, meaning the response indicates pending_verification with all verifications set to null.

Numeral then gathers results from the different sources. This process can take up to 30 seconds.

Once all results are available, a verified event is sent, with all verifications' results. Alternatively, you can retrieve the external_account to get all verifications' results.

curl --request POST \
     --url https://sandbox.numeral.io/v1/external_accounts/39446492-3d63-4a3c-8f96-a8ed8be91c0c/verify \
     --header 'Accept: application/json' \
     --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
     --header 'X-API-Key: Your_API_Key'

{
  "id": "39446492-3d63-4a3c-8f96-a8ed8be91c0c",
  "object": "external_account",
  "type": "legal_entity",
  "status": "approved",
  "status_details": "",
  "name": "Acme Corp. settling account",
  "holder_name": "Acme Corp.",
  "holder_address": {
    "country": "",
    "line_1": "",
    "line_2": "",
    "building_number": "",
    "street_name": "",
    "postal_code": "",
    "region_state": "",
    "city": ""
  },
  "account_number": "FR1212739000506541967515Q48",
  "bank_code": "SOMEBIC0XXX",
  "counterparty_id": null,
  "company_registration_number": "123456789",
  "company_registration_number_type": "fr_siren",
  "metadata": {},
  "custom_fields": {},
  "account_verification": {
    "result": "pending_verification",
    "valid_account_number": null,
    "matching_account_number_and_bank_code": null,
    "matching_account_holder": null,
    "active_account": null,
    "created_at": null
  },
  "created_at": "2024-05-22T12:34:34.721347Z",
  "disabled_at": null
}

{
  "id": "39446492-3d63-4a3c-8f96-a8ed8be91c0c",
  "object": "external_account",
  "type": "legal_entity",
  "status": "approved",
  "status_details": "",
  "name": "Acme Corp. settling account",
  "holder_name": "Acme Corp.",
  "holder_address": {
    "country": "",
    "line_1": "",
    "line_2": "",
    "building_number": "",
    "street_name": "",
    "postal_code": "",
    "region_state": "",
    "city": ""
  },
  "account_number": "FR1212739000506541967515Q48",
  "bank_code": "SOMEBIC0XXX",
  "counterparty_id": null,
  "company_registration_number": "123456789",
  "company_registration_number_type": "fr_siren",
  "metadata": {},
  "custom_fields": {},
  "account_verification": {
    "result": "valid",
    "valid_account_number": {
      "result": "valid",
      "details": {
        "reason": "",
        "expected_value": "",
        "message": ""
      }
    },
    "matching_account_number_and_bank_code": {
      "result": "valid",
      "details": {
        "reason": "",
        "expected_value": "",
        "message": ""
      }
    },
    "matching_account_holder": {
      "result": "valid",
      "details": {
        "reason": "",
        "expected_value": "",
        "message": ""
      }
    },
    "active_account": {
      "result": "valid",
      "details": {
        "reason": "",
        "expected_value": "",
        "message": ""
      }
    },
    "created_at": "2024-05-22T12:35:01.892244399Z"
  },
  "created_at": "2024-05-22T12:34:34.721347Z",
  "disabled_at": null
},

Test cases for sandbox

You will find here all test cases supported in our sandbox environment.

Coverage

Verification	Countries supported
Account number structure	Europe
Bank code	Europe
Account holder	France Netherlands More countries to come You will find here the list of banks covered.
Account status	France Netherlands More countries to come You will find here the list of banks covered.

Data providers

Numeral supports a number of data providers to verify accounts:

IBAN.com
SurePay
SEPA Mail Diamond
Swift (planned)