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
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.
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
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 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.