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Account funding

Overview​

Account funding is essentially adding money to your Swan account. You might use account funding if it's the first time you're sending money to your Swan account, or if you'd like to fund your account on a recurring basis from your account at another financial institution.

If you use requestedExecutionAt to schedule your funding requests, you can schedule them up to one year in advance. Your scheduled requests must be for at least two business days in the future.

Funding sources​

Supply money to your Swan account from an external account, whether with a push payment (such as a credit transfer) or a pull payment (such as direct debit).

Credit transfers and direct debit are both account funding sources.

Credit transfers​

You can fund your account with two types of credit transfers: SEPA Credit Transfer or Internal Credit Transfer.

Credit transfers are classified as push payments, meaning you send money to your Swan account from another source. Push payments come with no risk because they can't be disputed.

Use a credit transfer

Funding your account with a credit transfer is straightforward with no risk. Therefore, there aren't guides dedicated to the topic; the following is all you need to know:

Use any bank account in your name to transfer money to your Swan account. Your Swan IBAN is your identifier. As soon as the transfer is processed by Swan, it's credited to your account.

You'll see a SepaCreditTransferIn transaction on your account history for this transfer with the transaction status Booked.

The remainder of this documentation concerns only direct debit account funding.

Direct debit​

You can fund your account with one pull option: SEPA Direct Debit.

SEPA Direct Debit B2B (business-to-business) can only be used to fund company accounts. No refunds are authorized for the B2B funding method.

Direct debits are classified as pull payments, meaning the money was requested, then sent as a response by the debtor. Pull payments come with risk because the debtor can dispute the payments. Using direct debit to fund your account is more complex, so the majority of the documentation is dedicated to these funding sources.

Funding source statuses​

Funding source statusExplanation
PendingAdded a funding source with the addDirectDebitFundingSource mutation and are waiting for consent.
EnabledAccount funding source can be used.
SuspendedSwan can suspend a funding source if there's suspicion of fraud. While suspended, the funding source can't be used.
CanceledAccount funding source is canceled and no longer available for use.
Account verification status

The account verification status doesn't impact SEPA Direct Debit B2B account funding. The funding source status can be Enabled even if the account verification status is PendingVerification.

Payment mandates​

Signed approval through which a creditor or beneficiary can pull money from a debtor's account.

Specifically for account funding, the Swan account holder gives Swan explicit permission to pull money from their non-Swan account. For SEPA Direct Debit B2B, depending on the external institution, the signed payment mandate or payment mandate information must be declared to the user's non-Swan banking institution.

Consenting to the direct debit mandate updates the status to Enabled for both the mandate and the funding source.

Payment mandate statuses​

Payment mandate statusExplanation
ConsentPendingPayment mandate was added while adding a direct debit funding source with the addDirectDebitFundingSource mutation.

Next steps:
  • If the debtor consents to the mandate, the status moves to Enabled.
  • If the debtor doesn't consent to the mandate, the status moves to Canceled.
EnabledPayment mandate can be used to fund the account.
RejectedPayment mandate was rejected, possibly because the external account's IBAN and Swan payment mandate list different account holders.
CanceledPayment mandate is canceled and no longer available for use.

Account funding payment mandates expire 36 months after being created, or earlier if there's a suspicion of fraud.

Rolling reserve​

When using SEPA Direct Debit to fund your account, Swan reserves 100% of your transaction for three business days, after which the reserved amount is released to your account. Reserved funds are typically released around 20:00 Central European [Summer] Time (CET/CEST) on the last day of the rolling reserve period.

Rolling reserve is a policy through which Swan holds a certain percentage of the total transaction amount in a non-interest bearing reserve for a contractually predetermined amount of time. It's defined at the account level, and not based on the account holder.

Swan applies rolling reserve to certain types of transactions (largely pull payment methods, such as direct debit and card transactions) to protect users and Swan against various risk factors, such as insufficient funds and attempted fraud. The reserved amount acts as a safety net to cover potential loss for both Swan and users.

Rolling reserve is expressed as a percentage over a period of time. For example, assume rolling reserve is 20% of the transaction amount held for 30 business days. Consider the following example:

A direct debit transaction for 150€ is made and requires rolling reserve.
Swan reserves, or holds back, 30€ for 30 business days, and 30€ is added to the Reserved account balance.
After 30 business days, the 30€ is added to the Available account balance and can be used.

Rolling reserve timelines follow general SEPA availability.

Settlement date and booked time​

SEPA Direct Debit transactions are booked at 20:00 Central European [Summer] Time (CET/CEST) on the settlement date if no rejection or cancellation has been issued or received. Note that settlements dates exclude weekends and SEPA holidays.

Transaction initiatedBooked
Before 11:30 Central European [Summer] Time (CET/CEST)Next business day at 20:00 Central European [Summer] Time (CET/CEST)
After 11:30 Central European [Summer] Time (CET/CEST)Within two business days at 20:00 Central European [Summer] Time (CET/CEST)
Day & time

Days are measured as business days. Time is expressed with the 24-hour clock.

Guides​