Recently, I have learned that in Spain, it is customary when indicating a bank account number for a direct debit payment1 to also submit a "certificado de titularidad bancaria", a document issued by the bank that confirms you are the owner of the specified account.
Here is an anonymized example:
As can be seen, it contains really no information other than linking the account number (in IBAN format) to a name and an account opening date.
This appears to be done for security reasons. I think I see the possible benefit - it makes it harder for you to indicate someone else's account number.
On the other hand, I have never heard of such a procedure (or even the document) in Germany, where I live. None of my German banks seem to offer such a document in their online menus.
This makes me wonder: Is there any particular difference between the banking systems of Spain and Germany that makes this additional verification of account ownership necessary in Spain, but irrelevant in Germany? Or is this only another case of "different regional traditions and inertia"?
EDIT: As mentioned in the comments, the purpose of my question is not so much "What German document will a Spanish bank accept?", and more along the lines of "Is my account at a German bank less secure in this particular aspect than a Spanish account, or is the difference somehow compensated for by other differences in the banking system?"
1: The term was not used, but the situations as described to me sounded like that - they usually revolved around payments done by providing one's account number to the vendor.
