Free Cross-Border Payment Validator

Why validate payments before sending money?

A single wrong digit in a bank account number, or a missing purpose-of-payment code, can delay a cross-border transfer by days or cause it to bounce back entirely — sometimes with a return fee on top. Validating payment details before you submit a transfer catches formatting errors, missing required fields, and country-specific compliance requirements instantly, at no cost, rather than finding out from your bank two days later.

What fields are required per corridor

Required fields depend heavily on the payment corridor and mode. A domestic Indian NEFT transfer needs an IFSC code and account number. A UK Faster Payment needs a sort code and 8-digit account number. A US ACH transfer needs a 9-digit routing number and account number. An international SWIFT wire needs a BIC/SWIFT code, and for IBAN countries, the IBAN itself is mandatory — an account number alone won't be accepted for a SEPA payment, for example.

Compliance rules that catch people out

Several countries impose specific compliance rules on outward or inward remittances. India's RBI enforces a Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) limit of USD 250,000 per individual per year for outward transfers, and requires a purpose code on every one. The UK's CHAPS system requires a unique end-to-end reference on every payment. SEPA transfers across Europe require a valid IBAN with no exceptions — account numbers alone are rejected outright.

Purpose of payment codes

A purpose of payment code is a short classification — like "trade payment," "salary," or "invoice settlement" — that tells regulators why money is crossing a border. It's legally required for outward remittances from countries including India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, and Nigeria, and for most inward remittances into India. Missing it doesn't just risk a delay — many banks will reject a cross-border SWIFT payment outright if a mandatory purpose code is blank.

How Banqcheq validates your payment

Select your sender and receiver country, choose the payment mode that corridor supports, and fill in the beneficiary details. Banqcheq checks the beneficiary name for formatting issues, validates each identifier field (IFSC, SWIFT, IBAN, routing number, or sort code) against its official format rules, and flags any missing or incorrectly formatted required field — plus corridor-specific compliance requirements — before you submit the payment to your bank. For vendor payments specifically, also run the new account through our fraud checker before you pay, since a correctly formatted account can still belong to a fraudster.