Key takeaways
- Refunds for bank payments are sent as new transfers back to the customer's account.
- Good references are the key to matching payments with orders automatically.
- Webhooks and consistent statuses keep finance and operations in sync.
Taking a payment is only half the job. Operations and finance teams also need to refund customers, match payments to orders and close the books. With account-to-account payments, these tasks work a little differently than with cards, and in many ways they're simpler.
How refunds work
A card refund reverses a transaction through the card network. A bank payment refund is a new transfer from the merchant's account back to the customer. Because the original payment came from a known bank account, the refund can be sent straight back to it.
- Full and partial refunds are both possible.
- With instant payments, the money can reach the customer quickly.
- Each refund should carry a reference linking it to the original payment and order.
Payment references
Every bank payment carries a reference. When the payment is initiated through Open Banking, the merchant sets that reference, so it arrives exactly as intended. No more customers typing the wrong invoice number into a manual transfer.
If you control the reference, you control reconciliation.
Matching payments to orders
A reliable reconciliation setup usually combines three things:
- A unique reference per payment, generated by your system.
- Webhooks that report status changes, such as completed or failed, as they happen.
- Settlement reports that list every payment and refund, so totals can be checked against bank statements.
Statuses to plan for
Map each bank payment status to a clear action in your system: wait while it's pending, fulfil when it's completed, and notify the customer when it fails or is cancelled. Treat webhook handling as idempotent, so a repeated notification never ships an order twice.