Giro slip

In plain words

Imagine a utility sends you a pre-filled form: who to pay, which account, how much, and a long number that says which invoice this is. You hand it to your bank, or today scan it with your banking app, and the bank pushes the money. That form is a giro slip.

The important part is the direction. In a giro payment, the payer instructs their own bank to send money. The biller never reaches into the payer’s account, which is what happens with a direct debit, and nobody has to write a cheque that the payee later presents. The word comes from the Italian giro, meaning circulation: money moving around a system of accounts by book entry. ²⁴

The slip solves two old problems at once. It saves the payer from copying a long account number by hand. It also saves the biller from opening thousands of bank credits and working out who paid what, because the printed reference comes back with the money and can be matched by software.

That second job is why the idea has outlived the paper. An EPC QR code in a German invoice, a Swiss QR-bill and a SADAD bill number in a Saudi banking app all do the same work: they turn a bill into a payment instruction that cannot easily be mistyped and a reference that reconciles itself.

Illustration

Anatomy of a modern giro slip

Swipe sideways to see the whole diagram.

How it works

How a giro slip payment travels

The mechanics are the same whether the slip is paper, a PDF or a code on a screen.

1. 1

   The biller issues the slip

   Its billing system generates a unique reference for the invoice, prints or renders the slip and sends it to the customer.

2. 2

   The payer authorises

   The customer scans the code or hands in the form. The bank pre-fills the transfer, and the customer checks and approves it.

3. 3

   Banks move the money

   The payment runs as an ordinary credit transfer through the local clearing, or as image and data through a paper clearing such as the UK’s.

4. 4

   The reference comes home

   The biller’s bank delivers a statement or payment file with the reference intact, and software marks the invoice as paid.

Illustration

The money goes one way, the reference closes the loop

Swipe sideways to see the whole diagram.

Where giro came from

Giro is a European postal invention. Austria’s Postal Savings Bank is widely credited with the first postal giro in 1883, as a way to settle payments between account holders without moving coins. ²⁴ Switzerland’s legal basis for postal cheque and giro services followed in 1906, and by the middle of the twentieth century most of continental Europe had a postal giro. ²³ The UK joined late: National Giro opened through the Post Office in 1968. ²⁴

The cultural split still shows. Much of continental Europe skipped mass cheque use because giro did the job, while the UK and the US built their retail payment habits around cheques. In the Gulf, the paper habit that lasted longest is the cheque, not the slip, and that shapes what replaced paper there.

A word with too many meanings

Search results are confusing because “giro” means different things in different places. A German Girokonto is simply a current account, and girocard is a debit card scheme. In Singapore, GIRO is an interbank direct debit service, which is the opposite direction. In Britain, older people may remember “a giro” as a benefits cheque. In this article, a giro slip means one thing: a pre-printed credit transfer instruction issued by the payee.

Giro slip vs direct debit, cheque and request to pay

Each of these collects money from a customer, but they differ on who starts the payment and who carries the risk.

The formats, from code line to QR

Almost every format encodes the same few data points. What changes is the carrier and who the reader is.

EPC QR code (GiroCode)

The European Payments Council’s guideline EPC069-12 defines the most widely shared format in Europe. In Germany and elsewhere it is often sold as GiroCode. It is a plain text payload with one element per line, inside a standard QR code. ³

The technical limits are QR error correction level M, maximum QR version 13 and a total payload of 331 bytes. Lines end with a line feed, or a carriage return and line feed, and the last filled element has no separator after it. With UTF-8, an accented letter counts as more than one byte, so a long German or French name eats into the limit.

Two details are often missed. The guideline is informative: SEPA scheme participants choose whether to offer scanning at all. And it is written for cases where the same data is also shown in plain text, such as an invoice, so the payer can compare the two. For a code shown alone at a terminal or online checkout, the EPC points to a different document, EPC 024-22. ³

Swiss QR-bill

The QR-bill is the most tightly specified format in this family, and it is the one to study if you want to see what a modern slip looks like. It definitively replaced Swiss payment slips on 1 October 2022. ¹ Guidelines version 2.4 enters into force on 14 November 2026, after version 2.3 of November 2025 removed combined address fields, so addresses must now be structured. ²

The account and reference rules are the clever part. A QR-IBAN looks like a normal IBAN, but its institution number falls between 30000 and 31999, which signals that a QR reference must follow. It works for incoming CHF payments only. ²

UK bank giro credit

The bank giro credit (BGC) is the classic paper version and still exists. It usually arrives as the tear-off slip on a bill. The payer takes it to a counter with cash or a cheque. Pay.UK says BGCs clear much like cheques through the Image Clearing System, launched in 2019, and a payment made at a branch before the cut-off reaches the utility’s bank by the end of the next weekday. ⁴

Its format is governed by Pay.UK Standard 3.2, which is sold rather than published. The public best practice guide gives the essentials: ⁵

• Code line contents. The sort code, the account number, a two-digit transaction code and a serial number or reference. A collection credit can use a unique sort code without an account number.
• Code line printing. OCR-B size 1 in non-magnetic ink, MICR E-13B in magnetic ink, or a mix of both.
• Reference characters. Avoid letters where possible. The guide rates B, O, S and Z as very poor for OCR reading.
• Controls. Printing on approved paper, tested printers, a three-sided amount box, and bank approval of new designs. The guide says 50 samples should go to the bank after each print run.

Finnish bank bar code

Finland shows what a tight linear format looks like. Finance Finland specifies Code 128 Character Set C, digits only, a fixed 54 data digits, and a printed length between 70 and 105 mm. It works only for IBANs starting with FI. ⁹

Croatian HUB-3A with PDF417

Croatia keeps a formal slip with a two-dimensional code. The HUB3 record is plain UTF-8 text with 14 fields separated by line feeds, and the total is capped at 273 characters. It starts with the header HRVHUB30, followed by currency, a 15-digit amount, payer name and address, payee name and address, IBAN, a reference model, a reference of up to 22 characters, a purpose code and a 35-character description. The barcode uses a 0.254 mm module, a 3 to 1 height ratio, binary encoding and error correction level 4. ¹⁰ The specification we read dates from 2012 and its examples show kuna. Croatia has used the euro since 2023, so check the current bank guidance on the currency field before generating codes.

Payment references and check digits

The reference is what separates a real giro slip from a transfer with a note attached. A good reference is short, unique per invoice and protected by a check digit, so a banking app can reject a typo before any money moves. These schemes are all still in use.

Take the RF example. Starting with the invoice reference 2026000481, append RF00, convert R to 27 and F to 15, compute the number modulo 97, and subtract the remainder from 98. Here the result is 80, which gives RF80 2026 0004 81. To validate, move the first four characters to the end, convert the letters again, and confirm that the remainder is 1. It is the same arithmetic as an IBAN check. ¹²

These examples are our own calculations from the published rules, except the Swiss reference, which is the worked input in the SIX guidelines.

How to generate one

This is the sequence we would follow to add slips or payment codes to a billing product.

Where the reference lands in ISO 20022

Most SEPA and many national systems now use ISO 20022 messages. A scanned structured reference belongs in the structured remittance element (RmtInf/Strd/CdtrRefInf/Ref, with reference type SCOR for RF references). Free text belongs in RmtInf/Ustrd. When the payment arrives, the biller reads the same field from its statement or notification file, such as camt.053 or camt.054. Copying a structured reference into free text is a common and costly bug, because the biller’s auto-matching often only looks at the structured field.

Belgium shows a common compromise: its national standard is still carried in the remittance field of SEPA credit transfers, and Febelfin strongly recommends that bulk payers validate the check digits. ¹¹

How to read one

As a person paying a bill

1. Check the payee name and ask whether you expected a bill from them.
2. Compare the code with the page. After scanning, the banking app should show the same IBAN, amount and reference as the paper.
3. Keep the reference exactly as printed. Do not retype it in the free text field, because that often breaks automatic matching at the biller.
4. Heed name check warnings. In the EU, a name mismatch or no match result is a reason to stop and call the biller on a known number.
5. Check for tampering. A sticker over a QR code or a bank detail that differs from your last bill is a serious warning sign.

As an engineer decoding a code

Scan the code into plain text and identify it by its first line. The prefix tells you which spec to load.

Then validate in this order: IBAN checksum, reference checksum, amount format and date. Show the parsed result to the user and never send automatically from a scan. A parser that ignores the blank lines in a Swiss code will quietly put data into the wrong fields.

Current state, country by country

This is the picture as of October 2026. “Paper” here means a formal scheme form, not simply a printed invoice.

Netherlands: what the end of a scheme looks like

After 46 years, the acceptgiro stopped because volume collapsed: tens of millions a year had fallen to about 3 million in 2022. ⁶ Senders stopped issuing them in March 2023, and banks stopped processing them on 1 June 2023. Billers moved to European direct debit, iDEAL QR codes and payment instructions. There was no single replacement, and each organisation had to choose its own mix. A scheme can end while its use case stays alive, which is the main thing to plan for.

Sweden: the transition happening now

Sweden is the most active case at the time of writing. Bankgirot is moving payment flows to the banks and plans to complete the migration, Autogiro excluded, by the end of 2026. Products that stop after 2026 include Bankgiro Receivables (including image files), Supplier Payments, Bg Salaries and Bankgiro Payment Order. Bankgirot also states that bankgiro numbers will keep working and that OCR numbers can still be used. ⁷

For a company that receives payments, this mostly changes the back end: files sent to Bankgirot must go to the bank instead, and the formats vary by bank. The published Q&A does not spell out the future of paper payment slips, so a business that relies on them should ask its bank directly.

Germany and Austria: paper with a QR add-on

German banks use unified forms set out in joint banking association guidelines. A special form for check-digit-protected references carries form code 07, and its code line is preferably printed in OCR-B. ¹³ Invoices increasingly add a GiroCode alongside. There is no general requirement to do so, so it is a usability choice. In Austria, the unified Zahlungsanweisung took over from the older Zahlschein and Erlagschein forms.

EU rules that touch slips

Under the Instant Payments Regulation, EU payment providers must offer Verification of Payee on euro credit transfers, free of charge, with a match, close match, no match or other result. ²² For billers, this matters more than it first appears. If the name on your slip is a trading name and your account is held in a legal name, your customers may see a warning at the moment they scan. Align the two before printing, and ask your bank how it treats orders placed on paper.

The Gulf and MENA analogues

There is no Gulf equivalent of the European paper slip in everyday use, and we found no Gulf country with a national printed giro form. The region went from bank counters and cheques directly to digital bill payment. The job is the same, but the design is different. Europe usually puts the data on the slip, whereas the Gulf’s leading model keeps the data in a central hub.

Illustration

Two designs for the same job

Swipe sideways to see the whole diagram.

Saudi Arabia: SADAD

SADAD is the region’s clearest answer to the question the slip was built to solve. The Saudi Central Bank launched it in 2004 and owns it. ¹⁴ It connects billers and banks in one central system, so a customer can pay from any participating bank, and paid bills are updated centrally as soon as they are paid. ¹⁵ Each biller has a code, and each bill or subscriber has a number. In a bank app, the customer picks or enters the biller, enters the bill or account number, sees the details and approves. Government fees, utilities and many private billers use it, and the customer never needs the biller’s IBAN.

Online merchants can also reach SADAD through payment gateways, which create a bill and show the customer a number to pay. The practical pattern for a Saudi wallet or neobank is therefore a biller directory and a bill enquiry screen, not a QR scanner for invoices.

One local trap: a Saudi tax invoice often has a QR code, but it is not a payment code. ZATCA’s invoice QR holds a TLV and Base64 record of tax data such as seller name, VAT number, timestamp and totals. ²¹ Scanning it cannot start a transfer.

United Arab Emirates: several rails, no single slip

The UAE has no national slip or central bill reference format that we could identify. Its pieces come from different places:

• In-app bill payment. Banks and apps typically list major utilities and telecoms, and the customer identifies the bill with an account or contract number. Each biller defines its own number.
• Direct debit. UAEDDS uses a signed direct debit authority, and the Central Bank’s system then lets the creditor collect. ²⁰ Rents and service charges in Dubai are increasingly moving to this route, which is the digital successor to the post-dated cheque.
• Aani. The instant platform from Al Etihad Payments supports request to pay and QR codes for merchants, and SME banking products have added QR codes and payment links. ¹⁹
• IBAN transfer with a free-text reference. It is still common for business invoices. This is the weak spot, because matching depends on what the payer types.

A Dubai SaaS company that invoices businesses, for example, has no local slip standard to adopt. A sensible setup is a virtual IBAN per customer, if its bank offers them, plus a payment link or Aani request. The virtual IBAN does the job of the reference: the destination itself says who paid. As the UAE rolls out e-invoicing, keep the invoice number and payment data consistent across the invoice and the payment.

Bahrain and Jordan: hubs with two modes

Bahrain’s Fawateer sits alongside the EFTS national transfer system. HSBC describes two types: online billers, where the payer can look up outstanding bills and pay at any time, and offline billers, where the payer gives details directly and processing runs in morning or afternoon batches on working days. ¹⁶ That split reflects a real design question: can the biller answer an enquiry in real time?

Jordan’s eFAWATEERcom is a bill presentment and payment system supervised by the Central Bank of Jordan. It reaches payers through bank branches, ATMs, online and mobile banking, wallets, post offices and agents. ¹⁷

Egypt and North Africa: where paper-like habits live

Egypt’s Fawry is the nearest match in spirit to the classic slip, because it brings cash payers into a digital bill system. A merchant’s system generates a reference number, the customer receives it by SMS or email, then pays at a Fawry outlet or in the app, and the payment stays pending until then. ¹⁸ For a business in Cairo selling to customers without cards, that reference works like a slip with no paper.

In Algeria, Algérie Poste’s postal current account, the CCP, is the direct descendant of the postal giro idea, with CCP-to-CCP transfers and the BaridiMob app built on top. Tunisia’s post office also runs postal current accounts. In both, the common pattern is an account at the post office, not a biller-issued slip.

Which method to use

Risks and failure modes

• Altered details. Printed slips can be intercepted and changed, and a sticker can replace a QR code. Pay.UK notes that standardised printing helps protect BGCs from fraud. In scanning, plain text comparison and a name check are the main defences. See APP fraud for how these scams play out.
• Fake invoices. A perfectly valid slip can still be a scam. Check digits prove that a number is well formed. They do not prove that the bill is real.
• Broken references. Apps that drop the structured field, payers who retype, and systems that truncate long strings all create unmatched money.
• Print quality. Low contrast, resized codes, folded perforations and poor toner create misreads. The UK guide says consistency reduces rejects that can lead to misdirected funds or delays.
• Reused slips. One slip can be paid twice. Your system needs a rule for duplicates and for refunds.
• Scheme change. The Dutch and Swedish cases show that a format can be withdrawn. Keep the format logic behind one internal service so a change does not touch your billing core.

Example: one invoice, three markets

Common misconceptions

FAQ