iDEAL and SEPA refunds with Saferpay

With some bank-account-based payment methods, there is no way to initiate refunds: To credit or refund a customer, the merchant has to perform a manual bank transfer. This has been a common issue for some time and affects popular payment methods like iDEAL, SEPA direct debit (InterCard ELV) and SOFORT banking. We have developed a new solution to make life easier for our merchants: It works for all bank-account-based payment methods and is available to all of our clients (with or without Worldline Collecting).

With payment methods, such as iDEAL, it is not possible to initiate refund due to technical reasons. The new PSD2 payment initiation service provider standard (PISP), which enables SEPA payments without any additional contracts, will not be available for the foreseeable future. Thus we carefully explored several remaining options to solve this issue. As it is very important to us that we provide all our clients with a suitable solution and at the same time offer a good user experience, we opted for a solution that requires a few simple manual steps. With this option the refunds have to be manually initiated from within the merchants’ online banking system.

To ensure the best possible compatibility and perfect functionality of the new solution, we carried out extensive test runs. However, we recommend carrying out a quick test to ensure that the new feature is compatible with your bank:

1. In settings, enable “Manual SEPA Refunds Export”.
2. Perform a test refund.
3. Try to upload the file in your online banking tool and make the payment.

If this test works, you can keep the setting enabled. If the test refund fails, disable the setting and inform us by briefly describing the issue so that we can investigate immediately.

To enable iDEAL refunds, log into “My Saferpay” (Saferpay Backoffice) and go to “Settings” (A) > “Processing” (B).

Click on “Manual SEPA Refund Export” (C) to enable the function. Three empty text fields (D) will appear:

Enter your company account information in the text fields (D). This is the account that will be charged when you perform iDEAL or other SEPA refunds. To confirm the settings and account details, click on “Save” (E).

You can either perform iDEAL refunds manually in the Saferpay Backoffice or automatically via the Saferpay JSON API interface.

Saferpay Backoffice
Go to “Transactions” > “Journal” and click on “Details” for the transaction you want to refund. In the detailed view for the Journal, click on “Credit”:

In the view that opens, you can check the details and change them if necessary. To perform the refund, click on “Execute”.

Important
The refund is now saved in Saferpay but the actual cash flow has not been initiated yet. You have to carry out steps 3 and 4 below to refund the amount to the customer.

Saferpay JSON API
With our API, you can refund iDEAL transactions via POST: /Payment/v1/Transaction/Refund. You can find more details in our API specification. If necessary, your software provider or system specialist can provide further assistance.

In Saferpay Backoffice, go to “Transactions” > “SEPA Refunds Export”:

Here, you will see all iDEAL and other SEPA refunds that you have created in step 2.

Click on “Export all new” if you want to export all refunds.

Do you only want to export selected refunds? Then select one or more refunds by using the check box on the left side of the table. Then click on “Export selected”.

You will then be prompted to save an XML file with a file name like “ManualBankRefund-yyyy-mm-dd-hh-mm-ss.xml”. This file contains the refunds and information about the debit account, as defined in step 1. It is created in accordance with the provisions of ISO standard 20022 pain.001.001.03 for SEPA credit transfers.

Finally, log into your online banking system and upload the XML file created in step 3. Depending on the online banking system, you may still have to approve the uploaded file for the refunds to be executed.

Important
Uploading and approving the XML file in online banking initiates the actual cash flow: The amount is credited to your customer’s account and your account is charged.