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EBICS

Set up an EBICS participant

This page describes how to set up an EBICS participant in 365 business Banking: details from the EBICS contract, key creation, initialization letter, bank keys.

An EBICS participant is your access to one bank: one bank, one customer ID, one user ID and a key pair that belongs exclusively to you. If you have EBICS contracts with several banks, create one participant per bank. Only once the participant has the status Ready can you connect bank accounts through it.

Applies to: EBICS

Prerequisites

• The 365 Banking - Setup permission set or SUPER. With Banking (Base) alone, the participant card can only be read.
• The EBICS Connection license. Without this license, the wizard does not offer EBICS. See Permissions and licenses.
• Your bank's EBICS contract. It contains bank URL, host ID, partner ID, user ID, the protocol version and the accepted signature version.
• Your bank's letter with the hash values of the bank keys. You enter them in step 1.
• Sufficient time: between sending your initialization letter and the bank's activation there are a few working days, depending on the bank.

Step 1: Create the participant

1. Choose the Search icon, enter EBICS Participants and choose New.

2. FastTab General:

   • Code: your identifier, for example SPARKASSE.
   • Description: for example "Sparkasse Musterstadt, main account".

3. FastTab Bank Connection, all details from the EBICS contract:

   • Bank URL: the address of the EBICS server, not the address of your bank's website.
   • Host ID: the identifier of the EBICS server.
   • Partner ID: the customer ID that the bank assigned to your company.
   • User ID: the user ID that the bank assigned to this participant.
   • Protocol Version: usually H005 (EBICS 3.0). Your bank names the versions it supports.
   • Bank Name, BIC and, if your contract names no BIC, Bank Code.

   

   Purpose of the bank name

   The Banks list comes from finAPI's catalog, which does not contain every institution. A bank that offers EBICS but not PSD2 is not listed there. With bank name and BIC, the participant registers its institution itself. The Banks list then shows in the EBICS Participants column which access you have at this institution.

4. FastTab Key Generation:

   • Signature Version: usually A006.
   • Signature Key Length and Protocol Key Length: usually 2048 bits.
   • Key Password: set a password. Without a key password, Create Keys is not available.
   • Use Certificates: mandatory with H005. The switch is set when you change to H005 and cannot be turned off. With H004, your bank decides; French banks usually require certificates, German banks usually do not.
   • Certificate Common Name: required as soon as certificates are used. The name from the company information is suggested; at most 128 characters.
   • Certificate Validity (Years): between 0 and 20. With 0, the service chooses the longest validity of the German profile, and Business Central cannot show the expiry date. For France, 5 years is common.

   

   The key password cannot be recovered

   Your private key is encrypted with this password. Without it, the participant can no longer be used. In this case, a new participant with a new letter to the bank is required. Store the password where your company keeps passwords.

5. FastTab Bank Keys, the two values from your bank's letter:

   • Expected Encryption Key Hash (E002)
   • Expected Authentication Key Hash (X002)

   These values are compared when the bank keys are downloaded. A mismatch aborts the initialization. This protects you from keys that do not come from your bank.

   

The Status is then New.

Step 2: Create keys and send the letter

6. Choose Create Keys. The three hash values are shown on the Your Keys FastTab. Status: Keys Created. From now on, bank URL, host ID, partner ID, user ID, protocol version and the details on the Key Generation FastTab can no longer be changed.

   

7. Choose Send Signature Key (INI). Status: INI Sent.

8. Choose Send Protocol Keys (HIA). Status: HIA Sent.

   

9. Choose Print Initialization Letter. Sign the letter and send it to your bank, by post or as agreed with your bank. Without this letter, the bank cannot activate the participant.

   

Step 3: Download the bank keys

Wait until your bank has processed your letter. Many banks inform you once the activation is complete.

10. Choose Download Bank Keys (HPB). Business Central fetches your bank's keys and compares them with the hash values from step 5.

11. If the values match, the status changes to Bank Keys Verified and immediately afterwards to Ready.

    

The EBICS Participants list shows the state of each participant in an overview:

You can then connect bank accounts via EBICS.

Image

Every EBICS participant shows an image, on its own card and on every bank account connected through it. The Image FactBox shows it together with the Image Source:

Image Source	Meaning
Placeholder	no institution found in the Banks list
Bank List (finAPI)	icon taken from an entry of the Banks list
Custom	uploaded

1. A new participant shows the placeholder at first.

2. When you enter BIC or Bank Code, Business Central looks up the institution in the Banks list (without a finAPI connection) and takes its icon if one exists. If no entry is found, for example for a Swiss bank that is not reachable via PSD2, the placeholder remains.

   

3. Choose Upload Image in the Image action group to assign a custom image to the participant. It replaces the icon on the card and on every connected bank account, and is retained even if you change BIC or Bank Code afterwards.

   

4. Reset Image determines the image again. For a custom image, Business Central asks for confirmation first, because the uploaded image is lost.

Every image change is copied to every bank account connected through this participant, including accounts handed over to another company.

Status of an EBICS participant

Status	Meaning	Next step
New	created, no keys yet	Create Keys
Keys Created	key pair exists	Send Signature Key (INI)
INI Sent	signature key at the bank	Send Protocol Keys (HIA)
HIA Sent	all keys sent	send the letter, then Download Bank Keys (HPB)
Bank Keys Verified	hash values match	changes to Ready immediately
Ready	ready for use	connect bank accounts
Locked	locked via Suspend Access (SPR)	set up a new participant; a lock cannot be undone
Failed	a step failed	read Last Error, repeat the step

Every step can be repeated without losing a step that was already completed successfully.

Troubleshooting

Message or symptom	Cause and remedy
The hash comparison fails	Business Central aborts, and the participant remains unchanged. Compare the hash values character by character with the letter. If they do not match, contact your bank before trying again.
Send Signature Key (INI) is rejected with an error code	With H005, certificates must be used. Check Use Certificates and Certificate Common Name.
Send Protocol Keys with Signature (HSA) is dimmed	The signature key has not been sent with INI yet.
Send All Keys (H3K) is dimmed	H3K is only available with H004 and certificates.
An order fails	Read Last Error on the participant card. EBICS Jobs lists every order with its outcome.
"The keys of participant … have already been created, so its connection data can no longer be changed. …"	After Create Keys, the connection data and the key generation details are fixed. For changed details, create a new participant.
"Bank account … is connected through participant …, so the participant cannot be deleted."	A bank account is connected through it. Switch or delete those bank accounts first.

See also

• Connect a bank account via EBICS
• Manage keys and certificates
• Switch from another EBICS program
• Bank access