Inbound Returns
If an originating bank has previously initiated an outbound direct debit or outbound credit transfer that was unsuccessful, then it will receive an inbound payment return to reverse the original payment instruction. A payment return can either be:
An unpaid, where an unsuccessful payment at the homing bank has resulted in the automatic generation of an 'unpaid' which is sent to the homing bank.
A dispute, which usually happens when a debit payment has been erroneously taken from a consumer's bank account. The bank then initiates a return of the consumer's money.
In this case, the originating bank is receiving the inbound request. The response to this operation will indicate the success or failure of the return.
The following scenarios describe the payment return transaction flows between you as the originating bank (of the original payment) and Electrum.
Successful Return
The transaction journey of a successful unpaid or dispute transaction is indicated below.
Electrum receives a data file from BankservAfrica containing a number of transactions to be processed. These include normal debit and credit payments, but specifically also a number of inbound unpaid and/or dispute transactions.
Electrum parses the file, separating it into a number of transactions.
The payment return transactions are matched with existing outbound debits or credits previously processed. Once successfully matched, the unpaid/dispute transactions are either stored in the database or processed immediately.
Electrum sends an
inboundPaymentReturnrequest to theinbound/payment-returnendpoint (PaymentReturn schema). The message contains a reason for the return in thepaymentScheme.schemeData.returnTypefield, e.g.,DISPUTEorUNPAID.
PaymentReturn Schema
Holds a point-to-point unique message identification string as well as a message's creation date time.
The date and time at which the message was created, in senders local timezone or UTC. The date must be formatted as defined by date-time in RFC3339
A reference used to unambiguously identify the message between the sending and receiving party. Take note that this uniquely identifies a single message in a potentially multi-message exchange to complete a payment.
A list of key-value pairs to support adding any supplementary/additional data to an Electrum Regulated Payments API message.
Holds a series of identifiers to identify the transaction or an individual message that is part of a transaction.
Unique identification, as assigned by the initiating party, to unambiguously identify the transaction. This identification is passed on, unchanged, throughout the entire end-to-end chain. Note: this is distinct from the UETR.
Unique identification, as assigned by an instructing party for an instructed party, to unambiguously identify the instruction. The instruction identification is a point to point reference that can be used between the instructing party and the instructed party to refer to the individual instruction. It can be included in several messages related to the instruction.
Unique identification, as assigned by the first instructing agent, to unambiguously identify the transaction that is passed on, unchanged, throughout the entire interbank chain. Usage: The transaction identification can be used for reconciliation, tracking or to link tasks relating to the transaction on the interbank level. Usage: The instructing agent has to make sure that the transaction identification is unique for a pre-agreed period.
Universally unique identifier to provide an end-to-end reference of a payment transaction. This identifier remains the same for all messages related to the same transaction.
This model is the basic representation of a Party. It is expanded on depending on whether the party is a person or an organisation.
A code to identify a country, a dependency, or another area of particular geopolitical interest, on the basis of country names obtained from the United Nations (ISO 3166, Alpha-2 code).
The identification of a party, either a person or an organisation.
The name by which this party is commonly known in day to day use. For example, a shortening of their legal name or a nickname that they commonly use. This is "non-official". However, it is acceptable for this field to be set to the same as legalName.
The legal name by which this party is known (the "FICA" name). This is the full name of the party as found on country-issued documentation (national identity, company registration documentation etc).
Representation of an account for payment purposes. Note that at least one of identification or proxy is expected to be present.
A code allocated to a financial or non-financial institution by the ISO 9362 Registration Authority as described in ISO 9362 Banking - Banking telecommunication messages - Business identifier code (BIC)
An organisation identified by a code allocated to a party as described in ISO 17442 Financial Services - Legal Entity Identifier (LEI).
Name by which an institution is known and which is usually used to identify that institution
A unique identifier assigned to a company or organisation by a duly appointed authority within a country.
Deprecated. Please use the preferred clearingSystemMemberId.memberId instead. Identification of a member of a clearing system.
This model is the basic representation of a Party. It is expanded on depending on whether the party is a person or an organisation.
A code to identify a country, a dependency, or another area of particular geopolitical interest, on the basis of country names obtained from the United Nations (ISO 3166, Alpha-2 code).
The identification of a party, either a person or an organisation.
The name by which this party is commonly known in day to day use. For example, a shortening of their legal name or a nickname that they commonly use. This is "non-official". However, it is acceptable for this field to be set to the same as legalName.
The legal name by which this party is known (the "FICA" name). This is the full name of the party as found on country-issued documentation (national identity, company registration documentation etc).
Representation of an account for payment purposes. Note that at least one of identification or proxy is expected to be present.
A code allocated to a financial or non-financial institution by the ISO 9362 Registration Authority as described in ISO 9362 Banking - Banking telecommunication messages - Business identifier code (BIC)
An organisation identified by a code allocated to a party as described in ISO 17442 Financial Services - Legal Entity Identifier (LEI).
Name by which an institution is known and which is usually used to identify that institution
A unique identifier assigned to a company or organisation by a duly appointed authority within a country.
Deprecated. Please use the preferred clearingSystemMemberId.memberId instead. Identification of a member of a clearing system.
Holds a point-to-point unique message identification string as well as a message's creation date time.
Contains key elements related to the original transaction that is being referred to.
Designates which scheme a payment return is associated with and describes scheme-specific information for the return.
Identifies the scheme used for the payment
ZA_RTC: South African Realtime Clearing scheme.ZA_RPP: South African Realtime Payments Platform scheme.ZA_EFT: South African Electronic Funds Transfer scheme.CBPR_PLUS: Cross-Border Payments and Reporting Plus.
Identifies the type of EFT payment return.
UNPAID: Occurs when a payment cannot be completed successfully by the homing bank such as due to insufficient funds or account closure. Note that it is impossible for Electrum to reject unpaids received from industry, so a negative payment return response from the partner will always result in a reconciliation exception for inbound unpaids.DISPUTE: Occurs when there is a disagreement between the creditor and debtor regarding a payment and, after investigation with the assistance of their respective banks, the creditor's bank (in the case of a credit) or the debtor's bank (in the case of a debit) decides that the payment should be returned. As for unpaids, it is impossible for Electrum to reject disputes received from industry, so a negative payment return response results in a reconciliation exception for inbound disputes.SYSTEM_ERROR_CORRECTION_REQUEST: Only expected for inbound use and represents the case where a bank from industry has experienced a technical issue that resulted in payments to or from the partner bank being reflected incorrectly (e.g. credits or debits were duplicated) and the industry bank is requesting that the partner bank attempt to correct the error. This case is notably different from unpaids and disputes in that (1) the system error correction request is expected to be best effort and may be rejected by the partner bank if the request cannot be honoured (e.g. due to insufficient funds) and (2) the bank from industry may retry system error correction requests for the same transaction on different days if an earlier request was rejected.HOME_BACK: Occurs when a payment cannot be completed successfully at the operator such as a lack of information required to route to the correct homing bank. Note that it is impossible for Electrum to reject homebacks received from industry, so a negative payment return response from the partner will always result in a reconciliation exception for inbound homebacks.
An account number, shortened to 11 characters according to the account number reduction rules in the EFT technical standards. This field is intended for internal use by Electrum and generally should not be populated by partner implementations.
An account number, shortened to 11 characters according to the account number reduction rules in the EFT technical standards. This field is intended for internal use by Electrum and generally should not be populated by partner implementations.
A list of ReturnReasonInfo values providing detailed reason information for the return.
A valid, active currency code as defined in ISO 4217 indicating the currency of the amount.
The payment amount in the denomination of the indicated currency, in the format '<major units>.<minor units> with the number of minor units (fractional digits) compliant with the number of decimal places published in ISO 4217.
| Currency Code | Example | Valid | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| USD | 10.0 | ✓ | Represents 10 USD and no cents. |
| USD | 10.00 | ✓ | |
| USD | 10.001 | ✗ | US dollar does not support three decimal places. |
| JPY | 10.0 | ✓ | Represents 10 Japanese Yen. |
| JPY | 10.1 | ✗ | Japanese Yen does not support decimal places. |
Date on which the amount of money ceases to be available to the agent that owes it and when the amount of money becomes available to the agent to which it is due.
The message is sent via an Electrum store-and-forward (SAF) queue which repeats the message until you return a positive response.
You respond with an HTTP status code of
202.Once you have successfully processed the transaction, you send an
inboundPaymentReturnResponsemessage to theinbound/payment-return-responseendpoint (PaymentStatusReportschema).
PaymentStatusReport Schema
Holds a point-to-point unique message identification string as well as a message's creation date time.
The date and time at which the message was created, in senders local timezone or UTC. The date must be formatted as defined by date-time in RFC3339
A reference used to unambiguously identify the message between the sending and receiving party. Take note that this uniquely identifies a single message in a potentially multi-message exchange to complete a payment.
A list of key-value pairs to support adding any supplementary/additional data to an Electrum Regulated Payments API message.
Holds a point-to-point unique message identification string as well as a message's creation date time.
The date and time at which the message was created, in senders local timezone or UTC. The date must be formatted as defined by date-time in RFC3339
A reference used to unambiguously identify the message between the sending and receiving party. Take note that this uniquely identifies a single message in a potentially multi-message exchange to complete a payment.
Holds a series of identifiers to identify the transaction or an individual message that is part of a transaction.
Unique identification, as assigned by the initiating party, to unambiguously identify the transaction. This identification is passed on, unchanged, throughout the entire end-to-end chain. Note: this is distinct from the UETR.
Unique identification, as assigned by an instructing party for an instructed party, to unambiguously identify the instruction. The instruction identification is a point to point reference that can be used between the instructing party and the instructed party to refer to the individual instruction. It can be included in several messages related to the instruction.
Unique identification, as assigned by the first instructing agent, to unambiguously identify the transaction that is passed on, unchanged, throughout the entire interbank chain. Usage: The transaction identification can be used for reconciliation, tracking or to link tasks relating to the transaction on the interbank level. Usage: The instructing agent has to make sure that the transaction identification is unique for a pre-agreed period.
Universally unique identifier to provide an end-to-end reference of a payment transaction. This identifier remains the same for all messages related to the same transaction.
APPROVED: The instruction has been approved.CANCELLED: The instruction has been cancelled.PENDING: The instruction is pending.REJECTED: The instruction has been rejected.
A list of StatusReasonInfo values providing detailed reason information for the outcome.
Contains key elements related to the original transaction that is being referred to.
Designates which scheme a payment status report is associated with and describes scheme-specific information for the payment status report.
- Electrum returns an HTTP status code of
202to acknowledge receipt of thePaymentStatusReport.
Error Handling
No Acknowledgment File From Electrum to BankservAfrica
If Electrum does not respond to a file sent from BankservAfrica, BankservAfrica will notify you that a file has been sent. You will notify Electrum. The issue will be resolved between BankservAfrica and Electrum. BankservAfrica will resend the file and the transaction will then proceed as for a successful return.
Electrum must ensure that the file is not processed twice.
No Acknowledgment from Bank
If Electrum does not receive an HTTP message from you in response to a sent transaction, then Electrum will continue to send the transaction through a store-and-forward queue. If there still no response by the time the reconciliation window closes, then the transaction will be considered a reconciliation exception and must be handled as part of the Back Office/reconciliation process.
Negative Acknowledgement from Bank
If Electrum receives a negative acknowledgement (NACK, i.e., an HTTP 5xx or retryable HTTP 4xx) in response to a PaymentReturn, then Electrum will continue to send the message via a store-and-forward queue. If Electrum does not receive an acknowledgement (HTTP 202) before the reconciliation window, this transaction will be considered a reconciliation exception.
Electrum will continue to send the message via a SAF queue for all HTTP 5xx and 4xx NACKs that are considered transient (i.e., recoverable). If Electrum receives an unrecoverable HTTP 4xx NACK, then Electrum will stop sending the message and the error will be resolved manually.
No HTTP Response from Electrum
If you send Electrum a PaymentStatusReport and do not receive an HTTP ACK or NACK from Electrum, then you can retry the transaction up to a set number of times before the transaction is considered failed. The failed transaction will be considered a reconciliation exception.