International Payments FAQs

International Payment means transferring funds (Including SEPA Credit Transfer payments), in any currency, from or to an account to another account outside of the UK, or transferring funds from or to another account inside the UK in any currency other than Sterling.

AIB (NI) provides three type of Outgoing International Payments. These are:

1. SEPA Credit Transfer

SEPA Credit Transfer payment is a single non-urgent Euro payment that is executed in accordance with the SEPA Scheme Rules. The Receiver’s bank must be SEPA reachable.

2. Paylink

Paylink should be used for all other international payments. Paylink payments can be sent in all major currencies to most destinations worldwide as either standard or urgent.

3. Account Transfer FX

Account Transfer FX allows you to transfer funds between your own Currency Accounts and to or from your own AIB (NI) Bank Accounts located or administered in Northern Ireland.

• Your account details:
  • NSC
  • Account Number

• Receiver details:
  • Know the Receiver’s full name and address;

• Acceptable Unique Identifiers for all payments are:
  • IBAN of the Receiver and BIC of the Receiver’s Bank (mandatory for intra EEA payments); or
  • Bank Account Number of the Receiver and Bank Code of the Receiver’s Bank or
  • Bank Account Number of the Receiver and BIC of the Receiver’s Bank; or
  • Bank Account Number of the Receiver, Receiver’s Bank and Receiver’s Bank full name and address or
  • IBAN of the Receiver is mandatory for Euro SEPA payments

• Amount & currency
  • An exchange rate may be applied to the payment. The payment will be sent at the exchange rate of the day the payment leaves your account. Click here to review todays rates.
  • If the payment is over £20,000 a special rate will be provided

• Purpose
  • Details of the purpose of the payment must be provided on all International Payments

Cut off time for outgoing International Payments initiated using Paylink or SEPA Credit Transfer paper application form are

a) If we receive the payment application form before 4:30pm, we will process your payment the following Banking Day.

b) We will attempt to process a payment application form on the same Banking Day, if payment value is equal or greater than £ 20,000 and received by 11:30 am at our branch.

The cut-off times for outgoing International payments executed using electronic channels (for example our iBB service) are available on the relevant channels.

The 'International Bank Account Number' or 'IBAN' is a standard for quoting account numbers across *EEA and certain Non-EEA countries. The use of an IBAN and the beneficiary bank BIC code (Bank Identifier Code) enables your International Payment to be made automatically and ensures the correct identification of your receiver's bank account.
*EEA Country = EU Member States and Norway Iceland and Liechtenstein.

The Bank Identifier Code (BIC), is a unique identification code for a specific financial institution. BIC codes consist of either 8 or 11 alphanumeric characteristics.
AIB (NI)’s BIC is FTBKGB2B

Based on payment instructions together with the receiver's International Bank Account Number (IBAN), the BIC facilitates streamlined processing of International payments.
BIC codes consist of either 8 or 11 alphanumeric characters and can be verified using the following website: www.swift.com/biconline

The receiver account number must be in IBAN format for international payments to EEA countries and certain Non-EEA countries. Please click here, for list of IBAN mandatory countries.
We recommend that the IBAN is used in conjunction with the BIC of the receiver's bank to ensure correct identification of the receiver's bank branch and their account number within that branch. For further detailed information on country specific formatting requirements, please click here.

Please contact the receiver in these countries to obtain their correct IBAN account information and BIC details before initiating any payments.
Note: Failure to provide IBAN account information for payments to these countries may result in your payment being delayed, cancelled or returned by the receiver's bank.

Please see the Price List for International Transactions.

Where we accept a payment instruction, we will ensure that the recipient’s financial services provider is paid within the following timeframes (assuming we have received a completed instruction before the relevant cut-off time on a Banking Day):

*EEA Country = EU Member States and Norway Iceland and Liechtenstein.

Charges for International Payments are shared so you pay the AIB (NI) Charge and the receiver pays charges of all other banks.

An exchange rate is applied to an International Payment, when the currency of the payment is different to the currency of the debit or credit account. For Standard Rates applicable to Incoming International Payments click here, or for Outgoing International Payments click here. These variable exchange rates are subject to change at any time.

SEPA Credit transfer payments can be sent to any SEPA zone country. A full listing of applicable SEPA zone countries is provided in the following table

There are a number of additional SEPA zone territories where Paylink Euro may be sent. They include Åland Islands, Andorra, Azores, Canary Islands, French Guiana, Gibraltar, Guadeloupe, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Madeira, Martinique, Mayotte, Monaco, Reunion, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, San Marino and Vatican City. These tend to change periodically.

The below cut-off times, applies to Incoming International payment received on a Banking Day

The changes will be introduced on a phased basis from July 2020

Outgoing Payment Reference

For outgoing SEPA & International payments where a processing fee is associated with the payment, this will be posted as a separate debit on your account ledger. The AIB payment reference will appear as FTXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Example:

L1: FTXXXXXXXXXXXXXX     0.00 (Payment Amount)

L2: Debit narrative

L1: FTXXXXXXXXXXXXXX     0.00 (Payment Fee)

L2: PYMT FEE *

(* is a Pricing Code as outlined in our ‘Price List – International Payments’ for that Payment type)

Incoming Payment Reference

The payment fee for incoming International payments will continue to be posted as a separate debit on your ledger, however the payment reference will now appear as FTXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Example:

L1: FTXXXXXXXXXXXXXX     0.00   (Payment Amount)

L2: Remitter Name

L1: FTXXXXXXXXXXXXXX     0.00   (Payment Fee)

L2: PYMT FEE *

(* is a Pricing Code as outlined in our ‘Price List – International Payments’ for that Payment type)

• The SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) is a European wide initiative to standardise the way we make and process electronic payments in Euro. The goal is to make payments throughout Europe as fast, safe and efficient as our national payment system executes today.
  
  
• NSC stands for national sorting code.  This is a six digit code used to identify a particular bank and branch.
  
  
• SWIFT means the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.