[ARCHIVE] Direct Debit required information and duration of historic data

Archived 2022.12.11. Content moved to Guidance on direct debits 

Question

When responding to the Direct Debit API, to identify a Direct Debit authorisation, Data Holders (DHs) need to review past transactions on an account and identify those which relate to a Direct Debit transfer.

How far back in the history of transactions does a Data Holder have to scan for Direct Debit transactions?

Do Standards or Rules have a defined method of identifying Direct Debit authorisations?

If a merchant changes Financial Institution (FI),  how do we ensure this data is accurate?

Answer

Data presented, in response to calls to the Direct Debit APIs, should be accurate at the time of invocation. 

Regarding direct debit authorisations, the Data Holder should make the best effort to deduce the data from the transaction history of an account.

The duration for which the authorisation is required is defined as 13 months in the CDR Rules.  Refer to CDR Rules, main section 3.2 Meaning of required consumer data and voluntary consumer data - banking sector,  (4) (b).

If a merchant has changed FI and migrated their direct debits.  then this should be communicated via the Direct Debit APIs as soon as the data holder can reasonably know, probably after the next debit actually occurs.

See:

• Consumer Data Standards - Get Direct Debits for Account