You sent the documents, agreed the payment with your supplier, received the bank details and were confident the matter was settled.
A few hours or days later, a notice arrives from the bank:
"Payment rejected"
For many companies this comes as a surprise — especially when the goods are already waiting for shipment, the factory is waiting on a prepayment, or you urgently need to pay for property, equipment or a foreign contractor's services.
The good news is that in most cases the situation can be resolved.
The important thing is not to act blindly.
Why a bank may reject a payment
Most clients assume the problem lies with the documents.
Sometimes it does.
In practice, though, the list of possible causes is much longer:
- how the beneficiary's bank operates;
- requirements set by correspondent banks;
- the route the payment travels;
- additional compliance checks;
- documents that do not match a particular bank's requirements;
- the specifics of the destination country;
- questions about the payment reference.
So even a completely genuine and lawful deal can hit a rejection at some point in the review chain.
What you should definitely not do
The most common mistake is to start resubmitting the payment through one bank after another on your own, hoping that one of them will eventually put it through.
The result: several rejections in a row, lost time and a more complicated situation than before.
Nor should you change the documents, the payment reference or the structure of the deal without knowing why the payment was rejected.
First you need to establish what exactly raised questions when the payment was processed.
What to do after a rejection
The most sensible sequence of steps looks like this:
- 1Find out the reason for the rejection.
- 2Keep the documents relating to the deal.
- 3Prepare the invoice or the contract.
- 4Gather information about the beneficiary.
- 5Analyse the payment parameters.
In many cases those five steps alone make it clear how the payment can be completed.
Why one bank rejects a payment and another processes it
International settlements today travel through different payment routes and different financial institutions.
Their requirements can differ.
What raises questions for one participant in the payment chain can be a routine operation for another.
That is precisely why, in cross-border settlements, checking the deal in advance and choosing the right payment structure matter so much.
When it is worth turning to specialists
When you are buying property, paying for a car abroad, purchasing equipment, settling a supplier's invoice or closing a large commercial deal, the cost of a mistake can be very high.
Every rejection means lost time, further queries and the risk of missing your deadlines.
That is why many companies prefer to show their documents to specialists first and send the money afterwards.
How the work usually goes
For a preliminary review, the following is normally enough:
- the invoice;
- the agreement or contract;
- the beneficiary's bank details;
- a short description of the deal.
From there, the risks can be assessed, the documents checked and the most suitable way of making the settlement identified.
Often the problem turns out to be far simpler than it first appears.
Conclusion
If a bank has rejected your international payment, do not treat it as the end of the deal.
In most cases the reason emerges once the documents and the parameters of the transaction have been analysed.
The sooner that review is done, the lower the chance of losing time to repeat rejections and extra approvals.
If you already have an invoice, a contract or the beneficiary's bank details, EAST PAY specialists will review the deal in advance, flag the possible risks and advise on the best course of action before you send the payment again.