One H2H payment, step by step
- 1
The payment file is made
The payments are written into a payment file, almost always in the ISO 20022 format pain.001: who is paid, how much, from which account and on which date.
- 2
It is approved
The payments are approved before they leave. Depending on the agreement with the bank, that happens in your own system before sending, or afterwards in the bank's online banking.
- 3
It is signed
The file is signed with your company's own keys, which the bank has registered. The signature shows the bank that the file comes from you and has not been changed on the way. Some banks also want the file encrypted.
- 4
It is sent over the bank's channel
The file goes to the bank over the channel the bank offers business customers: EBICS at many German and Swiss banks, SFTP at others, or a web service of the bank's own. No person logs in to anything.
- 5
The bank answers
The bank checks the file and sends back a status report, pain.002: whether the payments were accepted, and the bank's reason when one was rejected.
- 6
The money moves, and the statement comes back
The bank pays on the execution date. The bank statement, camt.053, comes back over the same channel, so the payment can be matched to the invoice and posted.
What has to be in place first
- An agreement with the bank for its channel for business customers, with the payment types and statements you need switched on.
- Keys exchanged with the bank: your public key is registered at the bank, and you trust the bank's.
- A test run, before the first real payment.
That is done once per bank. After that the connection runs every day without anyone touching it.
Where BankConnector comes in
With BankConnector your system sends the payments in one format, whatever the bank. BankConnector writes the file each bank wants, signs it with your keys, sends it over the bank's own channel, and brings the bank's answer and the statements back into your system. Approvers use a code from an authenticator app when they have two-factor authentication or your company requires it, and always in the Uniconta add-on.
The money never passes through BankConnector: the payments leave your own account, under your own agreement with the bank. 351 banks in 55 countries are on the list of supported banks, each with the channel and formats it uses.
More questions
What does H2H stand for?
Host-to-host. The two hosts are your company's system and the bank's system, which exchange files directly, with no person and no web page in between.
Is H2H the same as EBICS or SFTP?
No. H2H is the kind of connection; EBICS and SFTP are ways of transferring the files. Which one you get depends on the bank: many German and Swiss banks use EBICS, other banks use SFTP or a web service of their own.
Is H2H the same as open banking?
No. Open banking (PSD2) was built for apps that read accounts and start single payments, and the access has to be renewed by a person at intervals. H2H is made for payment runs and bank statements every day.