# Discontinuation of VBANs in Belgium: Oct 2025 update

[Bank Transfers](https://docs.stripe.com/payments/bank-transfers) provide a safe way for customers to send money over bank rails. Stripe uses Virtual Bank Account (VBAN) numbers to automate reconciliation and prevent exposing your real account details to customers.
### What’s changing?
Due to regional partner strategic changes, starting on January 1, 2026, Stripe will no longer support incoming bank transfer payments via virtual bank accounts (VBANs) based in Belgium(BE). Funds sent after this date to BE VBANs will be returned to the sender.
All [other localized VBANs](https://docs.stripe.com/payments/bank-transfers/accept-a-payment?payment-ui=direct-api&country=eu#web-create-and-confirm-payment-intent) in Europe will continue to function as expected, and we are currently unaware of any imminent changes in other regions.
### Can I request an extension?
No. This decision is beyond Stripe’s control, so we cannot extend this timeline.
### What’s the impact of migrating to the alternative VBANs?
You can issue VBANs localized to any of the following countries: DE, FR, IE, NL. These VBANs will function in exactly the same way, regardless of where your customers are based. Read more about creating [localized VBANs](https://docs.stripe.com/payments/customer-balance/virtual-bank-account-numbers#allocation) in our docs.
There are no changes to the customer’s EUR cash balance and any funds sent to new alternative VBANs will be reflected there accordingly.
### What happens if I don’t take action?
Any future requests explicitly passing in the BE parameter value will fail with the error type `invalid_request_error`.
**To prevent disruption to your business, we strongly recommend making the required changes by December 31, 2025.**
Any payments sent past December 31, 2025 to BE VBANs will be rejected and returned to the sender.
### What action do I need to take?
The required actions will vary based on your Stripe integration and please follow the [migration guide](https://docs.stripe.com/payments/customer-balance/virtual-bank-account-numbers/belgian-virtual-account-discontinuation) to make the appropriate changes.
You will also need to inform your end customers about the changes so they can update their records with the new VBANs for future transactions.
### Invoices
From January 1, 2026 invoice payment instructions on hosted surfaces like e-mail, PDF and Hosted Invoice Page, will no longer display BE VBANs. Our fallback mechanism will display an Irish (IE) VBAN instead, ensuring that your customers can still pay via EUR Bank Transfers.
### Pricing
You won't incur additional Stripe fees for any replacement VBANs you create manually or Stripe creates automatically.