diff --git a/services/payments/src/main/java/com/klaro/bais/payments/PaymentReferenceService.java b/services/payments/src/main/java/com/klaro/bais/payments/PaymentReferenceService.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d2a01b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/services/payments/src/main/java/com/klaro/bais/payments/PaymentReferenceService.java
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+package com.klaro.bais.payments;
+
+import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
+
+public class PaymentReferenceService {
+    public String normalize(String reference) {
+        return StringUtils.trimToEmpty(reference);
+    }
+}
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