QR-IBAN: definition and difference from the standard IBAN

Q: What is the difference between an IBAN and a QR-IBAN?

The standard IBAN identifies a Swiss bank account (starts with CH, followed by two check digits and 17 digits). The QR-IBAN is a variant reserved for QR-bills: the digits at positions 5–6 (after the country code CH) always fall within the range 30–31, identifying the institution as a bank participating in the Swiss QR payment service. The same account can have both a standard IBAN and a QR-IBAN.

Q: How do I obtain a QR-IBAN?

The QR-IBAN is issued by your Swiss bank. Most institutions provide it free of charge in your e-banking portal or on request from customer service. It is then entered once in the settings of your invoicing software.

Q: Can I use my standard IBAN instead of the QR-IBAN?

No. If you wish to include a QR reference (the equivalent of the former BVR reference), you must use a QR-IBAN. Without a QR-IBAN, you can only create a QR-bill without a reference (SCOR or no reference), which limits the automatic reconciliation of incoming payments.

Definition

The QR-IBAN is a variant of the Swiss IBAN (International Bank Account Number) created specifically for the QR-bill introduced in 2020 by SIX Group. Its distinctive feature lies in its structure: the two digits at positions 5 and 6 (after the country code "CH") fall between 30 and 31, identifying the bank as a participant in the Swiss QR payment service.

In practice, a QR-IBAN looks like: CH44 3000 1234 5678 9012 3

How it works

When a creditor issues a QR-bill with a QR reference, the QR-IBAN is encoded in the Swiss QR code printed at the bottom of the invoice. The debtor's e-banking application reads this QR-IBAN and recognises that a 27-digit reference is associated with it. This reference uniquely identifies the invoice.

Upon receipt of the payment, the creditor's bank transmits this information via a CAMT.054 file (credit notification). The accounting software then automatically matches the received amount with the corresponding open invoice, with no human intervention.

Detailed structure

A standard Swiss IBAN has 21 characters:

CH — country code
XX — check digits
YYYYY — bank identification number (IID)
ZZZZZZZZZZZZ — account number

For a QR-IBAN, the IID (positions 5–9) contains the QR-IID, which falls between 30000 and 31999. It is this prefix that signals to banking systems that it is a QR-IBAN and not a standard IBAN.

Swiss context

The QR-IBAN replaces the postal account number (CCP) and the BVR reference (Bulletin de Versement avec Référence) used with the former orange payment slips. Since 1 October 2022, only the QR-bill is accepted for payments with a structured payment section. The transition affected all Swiss companies issuing invoices.

Swiss banks (UBS, Credit Suisse — now UBS, PostFinance, Raiffeisen, Cantonal Banks, etc.) all participate in the QR service and issue QR-IBANs to their business clients.

How Neoffice handles it

In Neoffice, the QR-IBAN is configured once in the company settings (under "Bank details"). All subsequently issued invoices then use this QR-IBAN automatically. Incoming payments received via CAMT.054 are reconciled in real time through the match between the QR reference and the open invoice in the ERP.