# BR-DE-19 SEPA payment account should contain a valid IBAN

For SEPA credit transfer payment means, the payment account identifier should be a syntactically valid IBAN.

## Problem Description

> **ERROR**: German XRechnung rule (KoSIT, BR-DE) · XRechnung 3.0

## Context and Significance

Many exports carry bank details as display text. Validators expect the structured account field to contain only the routable identifier.

## Solution

Normalize spaces, remove labels such as IBAN:, and store only the IBAN value in BT-84.

- [Validate XML](/en/xrechnung-validator?source=resource&rule=BR-DE-19)
- [Convert invoice](/en/pdf-to-xrechnung?source=resource&rule=BR-DE-19)

## Valid Examples

- DE89370400440532013000

## Invalid Examples

- IBAN: DE89 3704 0044 0532 0130 00
- Example Bank checking account

## Code Examples

### Valid XML
```
<cac:PaymentMeans>
  <cbc:PaymentMeansCode>58</cbc:PaymentMeansCode>
  <cac:PayeeFinancialAccount>
    <cbc:ID>DE89370400440532013000</cbc:ID>
  </cac:PayeeFinancialAccount>
</cac:PaymentMeans>
```

### Invalid XML
```
<cac:PaymentMeans>
  <cbc:PaymentMeansCode>58</cbc:PaymentMeansCode>
  <cac:PayeeFinancialAccount>
    <cbc:ID>IBAN: DE89 3704 0044 0532 0130 00</cbc:ID>
  </cac:PayeeFinancialAccount>
</cac:PaymentMeans>
```

## Affected Fields

- [BT-81 Payment means type code](/resources/xrechnung/bt-81-payment-means-type-code)
- [BT-84 Payment account identifier](/resources/xrechnung/bt-84-payment-account-identifier)

## Related Rules

- [BR-61](/resources/kosit-validator-errors/br-61-credit-transfer-account-required)

## Validation Tools

- [Official KoSIT Validator](https://github.com/itplr-kosit/validator): Run the official KoSIT validator with the XRechnung configuration to check EN 16931 and XRechnung rules.
- [Convert PDF to XRechnung](/pdf-to-xrechnung): Find validation errors during conversion and review each correction.

## Related Resources

- [Official Specification](https://xeinkauf.de/xrechnung/)
- [Test Suite](https://github.com/itplr-kosit/xrechnung-testsuite)
- [All validation errors](/resources/kosit-validator-errors): Overview of the EN 16931, XRechnung and Peppol validation rules explained here.