What Is an IBAN?
IBAN stands for International Bank Account Number. It is the standardised identifier used across the international banking system to route payments between accounts. Any business sending or receiving a bank transfer uses one.
What Is a Virtual IBAN (vIBAN)?
A virtual IBAN (vIBAN) is an account number that functions identically to a standard IBAN for payment purposes, but is issued by a regulated financial intermediary rather than a traditional bank.
The critical distinction is that a named vIBAN is issued to a specific legal entity. The account number is attributed to that company on the payment rail. Counterparties and banks see the company's name on both inbound and outbound transfers, not a generic or shared account holder.
What Is the Difference Between a Named vIBAN and a Pooled Account?
A pooled account is a single account held by a provider that is shared across multiple clients. Funds are distinguished internally by a payment reference, not by account number. The account belongs to the provider, not the client. If a reference is missing or incorrect, payments can be misallocated or returned.
A named vIBAN belongs to one client. Inbound funds route directly to a segregated ledger position in that company's name. There is no reference dependency, reconciliation is cleaner, and the audit trail is unambiguous on both sides.
Can a Crypto Company Get an IBAN?
Traditional banks frequently decline to open accounts for crypto businesses, citing compliance risk or internal policy. A vIBAN issued by a regulated financial intermediary is the standard workaround. The intermediary completes its own KYB process, issues a named vIBAN, and the business can send and receive fiat normally without a direct bank relationship.
The intermediary's compliance framework covers the fiat side. For the crypto company, this means the account is backed by documented onboarding, transaction monitoring, and a regulatory structure that supports its own compliance obligations.
What Is Wallet Segregation?
Wallet segregation means each client's digital assets are held in a dedicated on-chain wallet rather than pooled with other clients' funds in a shared address.
With a segregated wallet, the on-chain address is unique to one client. Their balance is verifiable on the blockchain independently of the provider's internal records. This matters for several reasons: assets are ring-fenced in the event of provider insolvency, transaction history is attributable to the specific client, and auditors can verify holdings without relying solely on the provider's reporting.
For a corporate treasury team, segregation is a governance requirement as much as a security one. Pooled custody makes it significantly harder to produce a clean audit trail for digital asset holdings.
How vIBANs and Wallet Segregation Work Together
For a business converting crypto to fiat, the two sit at either end of the same process. Crypto arrives into a segregated wallet held in the client's name, is converted, and fiat settles into the client's named vIBAN in the agreed currency. The full flow is attributable and documented at every step.
BlockRiver AG issues named vIBANs in USD, EUR, GBP, CHF, and AED to corporate and institutional clients, paired with segregated on-chain custody. Both are covered under a single onboarding and compliance framework.
