ARTICLE · 12 JUNE 2024

Virtual IBANs: The EBA's Report On Their Issuance And Regulation

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Virtual IBANs ("vIBANs") are increasingly being used as payment account identifiers across the EU to redirect payments, yet the definition and the appropriate regulatory treatment thereof remains ambiguous.

MaltaGovernment, Public Sector

Roberta Carabott

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Virtual IBANs ("vIBANs") are increasingly being used as payment account identifiers across the EU to redirect payments, yet the definition and the appropriate regulatory treatment thereof remains ambiguous.

The EBA has addressed vIBANs from an AML/CFT perspective in its Opinion issued in July 2023 (EBA/Op/2023/08), and thereafter carried out a wider assessment of the practices of payment service providers ("PSPs") or other entities offering vIBANs, with a particular focus on the market integrity, consumer and payments regulatory implications thereof. As a result of such assessment, the EBA published its report on vIBANs (EBA/Rep/2024/08) on 24 May 2024.

Given the absence of a definition of or common approach to vIBANs, the EBA primarily sets out some standard characteristics that it observed from the results of its assessment, including the fact that a vIBAN has the same format and functionality as a regular IBAN and is linked to a payment account (referred to as

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