Reversals

If your platform has received a wire transfer in error you can use our Wire Reversal API to reverse the wire and send the funds back to the financial institution that sent the original transfer.

When an incoming wire transfer reversal is initiated, the status of the original transfer will not be changed, and the reversal transfer follows its own lifecycle as if it were an ordinary outgoing wire transfer. See Wire Notification And States for more information.

Reversal Reasons

The reversal can be sent at any time after the original transfer was received. We currently only allow incoming wire reversals for the following reasons:

• invalid_beneficiary_account_number — the beneficiary account number is invalid
• beneficiary_mismatch — the beneficiary information in the wire does not match the corresponding information on the account
• beneficiary_request — the beneficiary is refusing the wire
• originator_request — the beneficiary is reversing the wire as per the sender's request
• account_closed — the account has been closed
• account_blocked — the account is blocked or frozen and cannot accept wires at this time
• incorrect_amount — the amount of the transfer is incorrect or invalid
• fraud — the transfer was fraudulent
• missing_originator_data — the transfer couldn't be applied as some originator data was missing
• missing_beneficiary_data — the transfer couldn't be applied as some beneficiary data was missing
• compliance — the transfer couldn't be applied due to compliance restrictions

Currently, these are the only reasons supported for initiating a wire reversal or recall. If there is a reason you feel should be supported that is outside the scope of the reasons above please email us at developers@column.com to see if it makes sense to add.

Linking the Reversal and Original Transfers to Each Other

In addition, reversal_pair_transfer_id field of wire_transfer object is used to link the original transfer and the reversal transfer as:

original_transfer.reversal_pair_transfer_id = reversal_transfer.id
reversal_transfer.reversal_pair_transfer_id = original_transfer.id

The original_transfer.reversal_pair_transfer_id will be final once the reversal_transfer.status is completed and no other reversals on original_transfer will be permitted. Further, another reversal cannot be initiated on original_transfer while reversal_transfer is in progress. A new reversal can only be initiated if and when reversal_transfer.status becomes rejected.