[ARCHIVE] Inferring Direct Debit authorizations from previously executed debits

Note: This article is out of date and has been archived.

For the latest information, please see article on direct debits.

Archived Text

Question

Per decision proposal #57, it is understood that where a data holder doesn't store direct debit authorisation in a separate data set, the information required by Get Direct Debit and Get bulk Direct Debit API will need to be inferred from previously executed direct debits.

Our question is: how far back in time should a data holder need to go to scan for previously executed direct debits? Direct debits could have half yearly, quarterly, or even annual frequencies. Also, previously executed direct debit records do not indicate if the direct debit authorisation is still active.

Direct debit authorisations are not something that certain banks display to their customers on digital channels, so if they were to return this information, it would be handy to know if there are any guidelines on the time period to consider for previously executed direct debit authorisations and also if it will be appropriate to return once-off direct debits in response.

Answer

We would expect a data holder to provide information about authorisations such as direct debits, provided they fall within the scope of data required by the rules.  This could include direct debits that are no longer active, as there is no relevant exclusion in the rules.

On how far back in time we must scan transactional history for retrieving direct debits, we do have an article on Direct Debits and length of data: Direct Debit length of historic data.