Short Answer
Since October 2025, your bank must check whether the recipient's name actually matches the IBAN before you confirm any transfer. If you override a "no match" warning and send the money anyway, the loss is legally yours alone — the bank's responsibility ends at the warning screen.
What Most Expats Don't Realize
You were rushing your monthly rent transfer late at night when the app flashed a notice that the recipient name and IBAN did not match. You tapped "continue anyway," assuming it was a technical glitch with your landlord's umlaut. The money landed in a complete stranger's account, and your bank rejected all liability because you had personally dismissed the mandatory verification warning. You lost €950 with zero recourse short of suing the unknown recipient, because German law treats your override tap as a signed waiver.
What To Do
- Stop immediately at any result other than a full match and verify the exact account holder name with the recipient directly.
- Call your bank's emergency hotline within minutes if money has already left, and request a formal transfer recall ("Überweisungsrückruf").
- "Ich fordere die Rückerstattung des fälschlicherweise überwiesenen Betrags wegen ungerechtfertigter Bereicherung." (I demand the reimbursement of the mistakenly transferred amount due to unjustified enrichment.) — Send this legal statement to the recipient via registered mail if the bank provides their contact details.
The Truth
The system now warns you exactly once before your money crosses the threshold. Germany treats any payment confirmed past that warning as the legal property of whoever holds the receiving account, until a court order says otherwise.