Frequently Asked Questions

iBanFirst is a financial service provider offering payment solutions to SMEs operating in foreign currencies. The iBanFirst platform offers businesses a full range of financial products designed for currency transactions. This entails sending or receiving payments in different currencies, allowing businesses to collect payments or pay suppliers, partners, and employees across the globe. Additionally, the iBanFirst platform offers hedging products and expert knowledge to protect businesses against currency risks.

If you would like to learn more about what iBanFirst has to offer you, feel free to contact us directly.

iBanFirst currently offers over 30 currencies to open accounts, receive payments, hold funds, and make payments. Currencies available include:

• AED Emirati dirham
• AUD Australian dollar
• BGN Bulgarian lev
• CAD Canadian dollar
• CHF Swiss franc
• CNY Chinese yuan renminbi
• CZK Czech koruna
• DKK Danish krone
• EUR Euro
• GBP British pound
• HKD Hong Kong dollar
• UF Hungarian forint
• ILS Israeli shekel
• JPY Japanese yen
• MAD Moroccan dirham (buy conversions only)
• MXN Mexican peso
• NOK Norwegian krone
• NZD New Zealand dollar
• PLN Polish złoty
• RON Romanian leu
• SAR Saudi riyal
• SEK Swedish krona
• SGD Singaporean dollar
• THB Thaibaht
• TRY Turkish lira
• USD American dollar
• XAF Central African CFA franc (buy conversions only)
• XOF West African CFA franc (buy conversions only)
• ZAR South African rand

At iBanFirst, we offer competitive and transparent foreign exchange rates and fees. Here you can find a complete overview of all our fees applied.

Unlike most corporate banks, iBanFirst does not charge any fees to open an account nor any monthly subscription fees.

iBanFirst earns a spread on every currency conversion, calculated as the difference between the market rate and the client rate. This spread is transparent and shown on the web platform or communicated over the phone.

The list of supported banks grows continuously. Here you can find a complete list of supported banks kept up-to-date by our Product team.

iBanFirst is partnering with Budget Insights, which is a PSD2 authorized third party provider that provides bank account connectivity to accounting software.

Because Budget Insights is used in the following accounting software, among others, iBanFirst accounts can easily be connected to (but not limited to):

• Dougs
• Axonaut
• Tiime
• Compta Clémentine
• Fizen
• Formee
• Evoliz
• Agicap

No, iBanFirst is not offering any credit solutions at the moment.

No, currently iBanFirst does not offer card payments.

iBanFirst accounts are nominative accounts with a dedicated IBAN. They can be credited by:

• Bank transfer initiation through open banking
• Standard bank transfer
• SEPA direct debit

Click here to learn more about how you can credit your iBanFirst account.

iBanFirst offers a comprehensive range of payment speeds to allow companies to choose what best fits their needs.

Payment speeds can be selected when creating a payment. Available payment speeds depend on the beneficiary account, bank, and country

Payment speeds range from instant to standard:

• Instant – payments between iBanFirst accounts are instantaneous (and free of charge!)
• RTGS – payments with RTGS (for Real-Time Gross Settlement) speed option are received by the beneficiary's bank in as little as one hour during business hours. Please note that depending on the beneficiary’s bank, payments may then take a little bit longer to be actually credited to the account.
• Express – payments with the Express speed option are usually credited to the beneficiary's bank account within 24 hours.
• Standard – payments with Standard speed option are usually credited to the beneficiary's bank account within 2 to 3 business days.

Please note that payment speeds are not guaranteed and that actual payment speeds might vary depending on factors such as regulatory and compliance checks, payment cut-off times, as well as intermediary banks involved in the process.

iBanFirst prides itself on offering a very personal experience from the first moment you enquire about our services to the time you decide to join us. Additionally, once you have an account, you can contact your customer success manager at any time to assist you with issues you might face as well as your dedicated account manager who can assist you on any enquiries about our hedging solutions.

iBanFirst is regulated as a payment institution as per the European PSD2 directive, which strictly regulates how payment institutions, such as iBanFirst, operate and manage client funds and payments.

For instance, under the PSD2 directive, funds must be segregated from the payment institution's own funds and held at a custodian bank. Cash reserves must be held to guarantee the payment institution's solvency. Both measures guarantee that, in the unlikely event of iBanFirst’s insolvency, client funds would remain safe and secure and would be returned to the clients.

iBanFirst is regulated as a payment institution (as per the European directive PSD2) and licensed by the National Bank of Belgium since 2013 under registration number 0849.872.824.

iBanFirst is authorized to operate in 30 countries of the European Economic Area, as per the free provision of services European directive.

As a licensed payment institution, iBanFirst is authorized to:

• Manage accounts
• Receive and execute payments
• Execute currency conversions linked to payments
• Set up foreign currency risk hedges linked to payments
• Grant loans linked to payments
• Connect to bank accounts (AISP)
• Initiate payments from bank accounts (PISP)

PSD2 strictly regulates how payment institutions, such as iBanFirst, operate and manage client funds and payments.

At iBanFirst, we do our utmost to keep our clients’ accounts safe and secure by investing in robust infrastructure and SSL connection encryption and carrying out steady audits and penetration tests.

Our servers are hosted in industry-grade data centres and protected by hardware and software firewalls. Data transmitted between your web browser and our servers is encrypted using SSL certificates and RSA SHA-256 encryption. Our servers and software regularly undergo independent audits and penetration tests.

No, iBanFirst offers dual authentication with username password and a time-based code to carry out sensitive operations on the platform. Additionally, iBanFirst offers multi-signature accounts and payments. Users can choose to set this option up to execute payments that require multiple signatures.

iBanFirst uses Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) methods to keep accounts and funds secure in the event the account credentials have been compromised.

Tthe two-factor authentication requires you to authenticate access credentials using both something you know (your iBanFirst username and password) and something you hold in your possession (your phone or Yubikey).

Click here to learn more about the SCA set up in place.

Additionally, there are other measures that you, as a user, can and should do to protect your accounts against fraudulent attempts:

• Do not share a single user access to people in your company
• Do not store your user ID and password
• Do not share your strong customer authentication (SCA) method with anyone
• Use a unique, strong password
• Use time-based one-time password (TOTP) or Yubikey rather than SMS as your SCA method

iBanFirst will NEVER ask you for your user ID, password, or strong authentication code.

If you believe that your user ID, password, or strong authentication code have been compromised, please contact your account manager on his/her direct phone number as soon as possible.

You are the only one who can see the accounts you synchronize. The other users from your company need to synchronize the bank accounts themselves in order to access the company’s banking data.

No sensitive data is accessible by iBanFirst teams. We cannot access the data related to external account balances or transactions. We only have access to the account name, the account currency, the synchronization dates and the connection state.

Any individual or company with international and foreign exchange payment volumes of more than €80,000 per year is eligible to open an iBanFirst account. Restrictions may apply depending on the country of origin, the activity of the company or the origin of the funds.

Fill out the account opening form to be contacted by an advisor.

Opening an account with iBanFirst is a 100% paperless process.

1. Fill out the account opening form to be contacted by an iBanFirst adviser.
2. Send us the documents identifying your company and its beneficial owners.
3. Our customer support team will set up your account, so you can be up and running right away.
4. You will need to activate your iBanFirst account by making a first transfer from your main bank account.
5. Your account will be ready to use upon receipt of this activation transfer.

Nothing, opening an account at iBanFirst is completely free.