User Verification

Sending money to an incorrect or inactive account leads to failed payouts, returned funds, delays and reconciliation effort. The Validate Bank Account API lets you check the beneficiary's account details up front through a single endpoint, across multiple countries. It handles country-specific routing and secure transmission of account data for you.

You can also ask Decentro to retrieve the account holder's name from the bank and compare it with the name you have on record. This returns a name match score you can use in your own risk or onboarding rules.

Key features:

One endpoint, many countries. The same request format works across all supported corridors, using either a domestic account number or an IBAN.
Clear account status. Every validation returns one of four statuses: valid, invalid, blocked or inconclusive.
Optional name match. Set perform_name_match: true to receive the bank-registered account holder name and a name match score from 0 to 100.
Bank details in the response. Where available, the response includes the account currency, account type and bank name.
No money moves. Validation is a non-financial check; it does not debit or credit the beneficiary account.

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Pre-requisites

Sign up for an account with Decentro before you start integration.

After sign-up, you will receive API credentials for our Staging/UAT environment and access to our dashboard.

Use these credentials to begin your testing and integration.

Contact your support team to enable Validate Bank Account for your account.

Relevant APIs:

Validate Bank Account

Understanding the account status

account_status	response_key	What it means
valid	success_account_valid	The account exists and can receive funds (or, for IBAN-only checks, the IBAN structure is correct).
invalid	success_account_invalid	The account does not exist, the bank code (BIC/clearing code) is wrong, the IBAN is malformed, or the identification details are invalid.
blocked	success_account_blocked	The account exists but is closed, dormant or blocked.
inconclusive	success_account_inconclusive	We could not confirm or deny the account's validity.

Name match

When you set perform_name_match: true:

beneficiary_details.name becomes mandatory.
name_match_score (0–100) is returned only when the bank provides the account holder's name. Otherwise it is null, and the account status is still returned as usual.
For China and South Korea, provider return names in local script. Decentro returns the Latin-script transliteration in account_holder_name and uses it for matching.
Name match is not available for US.

⚠️
Important
A null name_match_score does not mean the name is wrong. It means the bank did not return a usable name for that account or country. Use account_status to decide whether the account is valid.

Country coverage

Pass the value in the Country code column as target_country_code. Codes follow the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 standard.

⚠️
Important
Use GB for the United Kingdom, not UK. China individual and business accounts both use CN; Decentro tells them apart by the identification you send (a USCC means a business account).

Country	Country code	Account field	Bank field	Identification required
India	`IN`	`account_id`	`clearing_system_id` (IFSC)	—
United States	`US`	`account_id`	`clearing_system_id` (ABA)	—
United Kingdom	`GB`	`account_id` or `iban`	`clearing_system_id` (Sort Code)	—
Australia	`AU`	`account_id`	`clearing_system_id` (BSB)	—
Brazil	`BR`	`iban`	—	CPF/CNPJ as `registration_id`
China (individual)	`CN`	`account_id` (62* card)	—	—
China (business)	`CN`	`account_id`	`bic`	USCC as `registration_id`
South Korea	`KR`	`account_id`	`bic` or `clearing_system_id`	—
Indonesia	`ID`	`account_id`	`bic`	—
Vietnam	`VN`	`account_id`	`bic`	—
Malaysia	`MY`	`account_id`	`bic`	—
Nepal	`NP`	`account_id`	`bic`	—
Pakistan	`PK`	`account_id` or `iban`	`bic`	—
Bangladesh	`BD`	`account_id`	`bic`	—
Thailand	`TH`	`account_id`	`bic`	—
Nigeria	`NG`	NUBAN as `account_id`	`bic`	—
Uganda	`UG`	`account_id`	`bic`	—
South Africa	`ZA`	`account_id`	`bic` or `clearing_system_id`	—
Saudi Arabia	`SA`	`iban` + `account_holder_type`	—	NATIONAL_ID (personal) / UNIFIED_NUMBER or COMMERCIAL_REGISTRATION (business)
Mexico	`MX`	CLABE as `account_id`	—	—
Peru	`PE`	CCI as `account_id`	—	—
Chile	`CL`	`account_id`	`bic` or `clearing_system_id`	RUT as `registration_id`
Colombia	`CO`	`account_id`	`bic` or `clearing_system_id`	CC/NIT
Ecuador	`EC`	`account_id`	`bic` or `clearing_system_id`	CC/RUC as `registration_id`
Argentina	`AR`	CBU as `account_id`	—	—
Uruguay	`UY`	`account_id`	`bic`	—
Belgium	`BE`	`iban`	—	VAT/Company No. as `registration_id`
France	`FR`	`iban`	—	VAT/SIREN as `registration_id`
Italy	`IT`	`iban`	—	VAT as `registration_id`
Netherlands	`NL`	`iban`	—	VAT as `registration_id`
Poland	`PL`	`iban`	—	VAT/NIP/REGON as `registration_id`
Other SEPA countries	Code of the IBAN's country (first two letters of the IBAN)	`iban`	—	—

Country-specific notes

Country	Behaviour	What to expect
Mexico	The provider confirms the result only after a delay of about 5 minutes.	Decentro handles the follow-up for you, so responses for Mexico take longer than for other countries.
United States	Account holder name is not available,.	Since the provider doesn't return a name, `account_holder_name` and `name_match_score` are `null`. `account_status` is still returned.
United Kingdom	The provider returns the account holder's name only when it partially matches the name you sent.	On a partial match, you get `account_holder_name` and a `name_match_score`. On a strong or weak match, both are `null`, so a `null` score here does not tell you whether the name matched.
China (individual) and South Korea	Provider return the name in local script (Chinese characters or Hangul).	Decentro returns the Latin-script translation in `account_holder_name` and uses it for name matching.
South Africa, Argentina, Uruguay	The provider returns a masked name.	Name match can't be performed. `name_match_score` is `null`.
Saudi Arabia	The provider returns a masked name.	Name match accuracy is limited. `account_holder_type` (`PERSONAL` or `BUSINESS`) is mandatory in the request.
Thailand	Only account existence is checked; ownership is not.	Name match can't be performed. `name_match_score` is `null`.
Belgium	Only business accounts can be validated.	Requests to validate personal accounts are rejected.

Best practices

Validate before every first payout to a new beneficiary, and again whenever the beneficiary changes their bank details.
Use a unique reference_id (up to 36 characters) for every request so you can reconcile responses with your records.
Treat inconclusive as "not yet known", not as a failure. Retry later rather than rejecting the beneficiary outright.
Set your own name match threshold. The score is an input to your decision; choose a cut-off that fits your risk appetite.