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Do I need to know the bank name if I want to electronically transfer money to a private and I only know his name, surname and IBAN?
It seems that I need to know the BIC (SWIFT), or the bank name, in order to proceed with the transaction. The IBAN code is not enough. Is this correct?
For what I know, in the future you will be able to insist on using IBAN alone, but for now banks may require that you provide them with both BIC and IBAN. Here is more information on the "IBAN only" rule:
The SEPA Regulation stipulates the timelines for application of the so-called 'IBAN only' rule. This provision is relevant for both PSPs and payment service users (PSUs). Article 5 (7) of the SEPA Regulation states: "After 1 February 2014 for national payment transactions and after 1 February 2016 for cross-border payment transactions, PSPs shall not require PSUs to indicate the BIC of the PSP of a payer or of the PSP of a payee." Article 16 (6) however provides EU Member States with the option to defer application of the 'IBAN only' rule for national transactions to 1 February 2016.
The IBAN uniquely identifies a Bank and Account number Globally.
Technically only IBAN should be sufficient.
However in real world, today the way application have got developed [over a last 30 years without IBAN being in place], require Beneficiary Bank Code [identifiers], because based on that they determine how the payment needs to be processed.
Although IBAN has been adopted by more countries in Europe [plus Australia, New Zealand and more], there applications have not yet undergone the required change to fully support the real purpose or essence of IBAN. It would still be quite some time for IBAN to be truly functional.
