Outbound Returns
A homing bank has different ways of returning an inbound payment:
An unpaid is automatically generated as the next part of the process when a payment at an account held at the homing bank is unsuccessful, i.e., the account could not be debited or credited. The bank does not need to implement any additional operations for an unpaid as it is an inherent part of the process for rectifying an unsuccessful payment.
A dispute usually happens when a debit payment has been erroneously taken from a consumer's account at the homing bank. The homing bank then initiates a return of the consumer's money.
In this case, the homing bank is sending the outbound request.
The following scenarios describe the payment return transaction flows between you as the homing bank (of the original payment) and Electrum.
Successful Outbound Return
- You send an
outboundPaymentReturnrequest to theoutbound/payment-returnendpoint (PaymentReturnschema, see below).
PaymentReturn Schema
- CreditTransfer
- PaymentStatusReport
- IdentifierSchemeDeregistrationRequest
- IdentifierSchemeDeregistrationResponse
- IdentifierSchemeRegistrationRequest
- IdentifierSchemeRegistrationResponse
- SchemeInquiryRequest
- SchemeInquiryResponse
- IdentifierDeterminationRequest
- IdentifierDeterminationResponse
- AccountUpdateRequest
- AccountAdditionalIdUpdateRequest
- DirectDebit
- PaymentReturn
- RequestToPay
- RequestToPayResponse
- AccountVerificationRequest
- AccountVerificationResponse
- CreditTransferInitiation
- PaymentInitiationStatusReport
- ReservationRequest
- VoidReservationRequest
- PostingRequest
- Receipt
- BaseResponseMessage
- BaseTransactionMessage
Holds a point-to-point unique message identification string as well as a message's creation date time.
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.
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 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 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.
Designates which scheme a credit transfer is associated with and describes scheme-specific information for the credit transfer.
Identifies the scheme used for the payment
ZA_RTC: South African Realtime Clearing schemeZA_RPP: South African Realtime Payments Platform scheme.ZA_EFT: South African Electronic Funds Transfer scheme.
An explanation of the transaction, e.g. to be printed on the account holder's statement.
Echo data reserved for originator use. Must remain unaltered by the beneficiary.
Business reference number. The first two numeric digits identify the bank and the last 8 characters contain a unique alphanumeric value generated by the originating bank (unique for the transaction).
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. |
A valid, active currency code as defined in ISO 4217 indicating the currency of the amount.
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.
This model is the basic representation of a Party. It is expanded on depending on whether the party is a person or an organisation.
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).
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.
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.
Representation of an account for payment purposes. Note that at least one of identification or proxy is expected to be present.
Name of the account, as assigned by the account servicing institution, in agreement with the account owner in order to provide an additional means of identification of the account.
Identification of the currency in which the account is held.
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).
A unique identifier assigned to a company or organisation by a duly appointed authority within a country.
Identification of a member of a clearing system.
Name by which an institution is known and which is usually used to identify that institution
This model is the basic representation of a Party. It is expanded on depending on whether the party is a person or an organisation.
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).
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.
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.
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).
A unique identifier assigned to a company or organisation by a duly appointed authority within a country.
Identification of a member of a clearing system.
Name by which an institution is known and which is usually used to identify that institution
Further information related to the processing of the payment instruction, provided by the initiating party, and intended for the creditor agent.
Agents between the debtor's agent and the creditor's agent. Usage: If more than one intermediary agent is present, then IntermediaryAgent1 identifies the agent between the DebtorAgent and the IntermediaryAgent2
Agent(s) between the debtor's agent and the instructing agent.
Specifies the underlying reason for the payment transaction
Electrum returns a positive response with HTTP status code
202.Electrum validates the account information sent by the bank using the CDV specification.
After Electrum has successfully validated and processed the transaction within Electrum, Electrum sends an
outboundPaymentReturnResponsemessage to theoutbound/payment-return-responseendpoint (PaymentStatusReportschema).
PaymentStatusReport Schema
- CreditTransfer
- PaymentStatusReport
- IdentifierSchemeDeregistrationRequest
- IdentifierSchemeDeregistrationResponse
- IdentifierSchemeRegistrationRequest
- IdentifierSchemeRegistrationResponse
- SchemeInquiryRequest
- SchemeInquiryResponse
- IdentifierDeterminationRequest
- IdentifierDeterminationResponse
- AccountUpdateRequest
- AccountAdditionalIdUpdateRequest
- DirectDebit
- PaymentReturn
- RequestToPay
- RequestToPayResponse
- AccountVerificationRequest
- AccountVerificationResponse
- CreditTransferInitiation
- PaymentInitiationStatusReport
- ReservationRequest
- VoidReservationRequest
- PostingRequest
- Receipt
- BaseResponseMessage
- BaseTransactionMessage
Holds a point-to-point unique message identification string as well as a message's creation date time.
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.
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 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 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.
Designates which scheme a credit transfer is associated with and describes scheme-specific information for the credit transfer.
Identifies the scheme used for the payment
ZA_RTC: South African Realtime Clearing schemeZA_RPP: South African Realtime Payments Platform scheme.ZA_EFT: South African Electronic Funds Transfer scheme.
An explanation of the transaction, e.g. to be printed on the account holder's statement.
Echo data reserved for originator use. Must remain unaltered by the beneficiary.
Business reference number. The first two numeric digits identify the bank and the last 8 characters contain a unique alphanumeric value generated by the originating bank (unique for the transaction).
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. |
A valid, active currency code as defined in ISO 4217 indicating the currency of the amount.
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.
This model is the basic representation of a Party. It is expanded on depending on whether the party is a person or an organisation.
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).
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.
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.
Representation of an account for payment purposes. Note that at least one of identification or proxy is expected to be present.
Name of the account, as assigned by the account servicing institution, in agreement with the account owner in order to provide an additional means of identification of the account.
Identification of the currency in which the account is held.
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).
A unique identifier assigned to a company or organisation by a duly appointed authority within a country.
Identification of a member of a clearing system.
Name by which an institution is known and which is usually used to identify that institution
This model is the basic representation of a Party. It is expanded on depending on whether the party is a person or an organisation.
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).
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.
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.
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).
A unique identifier assigned to a company or organisation by a duly appointed authority within a country.
Identification of a member of a clearing system.
Name by which an institution is known and which is usually used to identify that institution
Further information related to the processing of the payment instruction, provided by the initiating party, and intended for the creditor agent.
Agents between the debtor's agent and the creditor's agent. Usage: If more than one intermediary agent is present, then IntermediaryAgent1 identifies the agent between the DebtorAgent and the IntermediaryAgent2
Agent(s) between the debtor's agent and the instructing agent.
Specifies the underlying reason for the payment transaction
Electrum will send the message repeatedly via a store-and-forward queue until you acknowledge receipt.
You respond with an HTTP status code of
202.The transaction is stored in a database until an adequate number of transactions has been received, or a time limit has been reached. Electrum then groups the transactions into an EFT data file and sends the file to BankservAfrica immediately if the day's processing window is still open; if not then Electrum sends the file once the next processing window is open.
Error Handling
No Response from Electrum
If you do not receive an acknowledgement or negative acknowledgement from Electrum in response to a PaymentReturn message, then you can retry the transaction up to set number of times before considering the transaction failed. Such a transaction will be considered a reconciliation exception.
Negative Acknowledgement from Electrum
If you receive a negative acknowledgement (NACK; HTTP 5xx or retryable HTTP 4xx) from Electrum in response to a PaymentReturn message, then you can retry the transaction up to a set number of times before considering the transaction failed. Such a transaction will be considered a reconciliation exception.
You can retry the message for all HTTP 5xx and 4xx NACKs that are considered transient (i.e., recoverable). For HTTP 4xx NACKs that are not recoverable, the error will be resolved manually.
No PaymentStatusReport from Electrum
If you do not receive a PaymentStatusReport message from Electrum before the reconciliation window closes, then the transaction will be considered a reconciliation exception.
No HTTP Response from the Bank
If Electrum does not receive an acknowledgement or negative acknowledgement from you in response to a PaymentStatusReport then Electrum will continue to send the message via a store-and-forward queue. If there is still no response before the reconciliation window closes then the transaction will be considered a reconciliation exception.
Error Validating Account Details
A payment may be rejected for various reasons during the account validation stage. If you receive a PaymentStatusReport message containing the status code RJCT from Electrum, then you can retry the transaction after rectifying the discrepanices, or abort the transaction.
No Response from BankservAfrica
If Electrum does not receive a response after sending an EFT file to BankservAfrica, Electrum will notify BankservAfrica that a file has been sent and an issue has occurred. The issue will be resolved between BankservAfrica and Electrum. The process will then continue as normal.