Invoice Recipient Requesting My Bank Documentation

[Shardy]

Hello. Sorry in advance if this is the wrong sub forum.

I run a small Limited Company and I’ve just invoiced another Company for some work I did. (The invoice includes all relevant info/bank details).

However they’re asking me for “Official Documents from my Bank that confirms my direct deposit/banking information”.

I have never been requested this before, and honestly have no idea what they mean.

Surely I’m not expected to forward them a bank statement am I?

Is there something I can print off, that shows my Company Name, Account Number, Sort & BIC number etc?
Is this even a thing?

Thank you for your insight and time.
Best regards

 

[simon field]

Could you perhaps phone them and ask what they mean?

It certainly isn’t normal in my experience

 

[WaveJumper]

Does seem a little odd is this a UK or overseas company asking

 

[Bobbo]

Not unreasonable level of supplier due diligence by your customer.

Quite common in charity sector for grant recipients to be requested to provide to grantors copy bank statement signed by a trustee / treasurer etc

 

[Shardy]

Could you perhaps phone them and ask what they mean?

It certainly isn’t normal in my experience

Does seem a little odd is this a UK or overseas company asking

Not unreasonable level of supplier due diligence by your customer.

Quite common in charity sector for grant recipients to be requested to provide to grantors copy bank statement signed by a trustee / treasurer etc

Thanks so much for your replies.
I’m in the Uk and the company I’ve invoiced is in France.

I’ve told them my company info is public and they can verify my VAT number, but they’re still being odd about the bank.

I asked them to clarify what document they need (seems all info was already on the invoice, include Acc, Sort & BIC) and this was their response:

“It should be a document or statement that includes all of your info; you may have to contact your bank for them to tell you where to look.”

But I’m not comfortable handing over a bank statement. Seems invasive, insecure and unnecessary.

However it seems I won’t be paid until I do.

Thanks again for your time.
I appreciate the responses.

 

[HFE Signs]

There was a scam where people intercepted emails and recreated invoices with different bank details. Maybe they’ve been caught by this, I’d expect a phone conversation would be good enough to validate correct details though

 

[WaveJumper]

I would certainly give them a call and have a chat, I do know they do love their paper work and have a whole other way of doing things a very good friend of mine has a vineyard in the South of France and its drives her completely mad and she's French. its possible it could be due to money laundering or another thought perhaps checking your country for tax status but has to be worth talking to them direct to put your mind at ease.

 

[WaveJumper]

@Shardy spoke with friend in France this morning and was told this is not normal practise ........ in her own words "tell them to naff off"

 

[Shardy]

There was a scam where people intercepted emails and recreated invoices with different bank details. Maybe they’ve been caught by this, I’d expect a phone conversation would be good enough to validate correct details though

Interesting. I haven’t heard of this. That’s quite scary. I will have to ask them to clarify again

@Shardy spoke with friend in France this morning and was told this is not normal practise ........ in her own words "tell them to naff off"

Thank you for asking them. That’s good to know. I don’t intend to give them my docs if I can avoid it.

I will speak to my bank today and see what they say (while I wait for a response from the company). Maybe they can give me a headed letter with the details I already provided them

 

[WaveJumper]

Interesting. I haven’t heard of this. That’s quite scary. I will have to ask them to clarify again

Thank you for asking them. That’s good to know. I don’t intend to give them my docs if I can avoid it.

I will speak to my bank today and see what they say (while I wait for a response from the company). Maybe they can give me a headed letter with the details I already provided them

Best of luck and let us know how you get on

 

[Mark T Jones]

We are often asked by lenders to obtain bank verification from suppliers.

As above, it basically is a form of fraud prevention and also protects you.

 

[Frank the Insurance guy]

There are a lot of scams about - they don't want to pay the bank account you have given them in case in w weeks time you are chasing for the payment and it then turns out they have paid it to another account!

I would send them a copy of your bank statement (you can redact all the entries so they can't see the activity on the account).

 

[Scott DLE]

I had a client call to verify our bank details. They explained that they lost about 100k to a scam previously, it took a matter of secs for a scammer to change a pdf invoice with different bank details.

I would just contact them and ask what’s best to put their mind at ease.

 

[HFE Signs]

I had a client call to verify our bank details. They explained that they lost about 100k to a scam previously, it took a matter of secs for a scammer to change a pdf invoice with different bank details.

I would just contact them and ask what’s best to put their mind at ease.

This sounds similar to the scam I mentioned above.

I was advised by Barclays fraud team :

If you get a letter or invoice with a change of bank details, always ring the supplier and speak with them to verify it's genuine, obviously you wouldn't use the number on the new invoice/letter unless it matched a number you already have for them.

 

[Karimbo]

Ive had this when deailing with public sector orgs, they want to prove that your bank account is real and the bank accounts match the name of the business (tghis is done in the bank transfer check these days so not sure why thats necessary).

You can just scan in your statement and cover your tiny bank balances and transactions if you like.

 

[Shardy]

Hey everyone. So I just wanted to update for anyone looking at this in the future.
In the end I couldn't get around providing proof of my Bank Account.

Halifax informed me in branch it's ok to provide a Bank Statement and redact any data such as balance, money in/out etc.
If you save a pdf online you can do this fairly easily (use preview on a Mac).

I forwarded the "almost blank" Statement to the Company in France and that was enough to pay my invoice. It seems they just needed to verify the Bank was real and attached to my business to help prevent fraud.

If you find yourself in this situation it's always best to double check with your Bank, however sending a Statement with Business name/address (which is basically public info) and all data redacted, is ok.

Thanks for all your input. Good luck to those in the future. Thanks.

 

[HFE Signs]

Hey everyone. So I just wanted to update for anyone looking at this in the future.
In the end I couldn't get around providing proof of my Bank Account.

Halifax informed me in branch it's ok to provide a Bank Statement and redact any data such as balance, money in/out etc.
If you save a pdf online you can do this fairly easily (use preview on a Mac).

I forwarded the "almost blank" Statement to the Company in France and that was enough to pay my invoice. It seems they just needed to verify the Bank was real and attached to my business to help prevent fraud.

If you find yourself in this situation it's always best to double check with your Bank, however sending a Statement with Business name/address (which is basically public info) and all data redacted, is ok.

Thanks for all your input. Good luck to those in the future. Thanks.

Glad you got it sorted, thanks for the update - I'm sure they'll find a lot of people won't be happy to give the information without question.

 

[AndreasC]

When you opened your bank account you would have received the bank account details confirmation which you can provide them. You could also ask your accountant or lawyer to write to them to confirm the details

You will be providing them the details to pay you anyway