All About The SWIFT, BIC, IBAN, Routing Number And Sort Codes (2024)

IBAN

An IBAN, or International Bank Account Number, is the customer’s bank account number in a standard, internationally recognised format. Used with a Bank Identifier Code (BIC), it helps to process international payments automatically, making them more secure and faster. It also helps prevent payments from being rejected, delayed, or sent incorrectly, which could involve additional charges being applied.

TheIBANis an internationally agreed-upon system created to facilitate the process of cross border transactions with a reduced risk of transcription errors. The IBAN code is used when making money transfers between banks, mostly to/from other countries.

Initially, the system was created to facilitate payments within the European Union, but it has quickly been implemented in most European countries as well as other parts of the world, like the Middle East and the Caribbean. As of February 2016, there are 69 countries officially using the IBAN system.

IBAN Code Format

The IBAN code consists of up to 34 characters, containing both letters and digits, and has the following structure:

AA–BB–CCCCCCCCCCC

• The first 2 characters represent the country code (only letters);
• The next 2 characters specify the check digits* (only digits);
• The rest of them represent a long and detailed bank account-number.

* Acheck digitis a form of redundancy check used for error detection on identification numbers

Routing Number (USA)

The routing number is a nine-digit numerical code used to transfer money to USA to identify a specific financial institution, and it is used for domestic transfers. You can easily find it at the bottom of your checks.

The format of the Routing Number code is like this:

AAAA BBBB C

• AAAA is the Federal Reserve Routing Symbol;
• BBBB is the American Bankers Association (ABA) Institution Identifier;
• C is the check digit.

Canadian Transit Number

Canadian transit numbers are regulated by theCanadian Payments Association and consist of nine numerical digits. For money transfers in Canada, they are used to identify an individual branch of a financial institution in Canada.

The format of the code is pretty simple:

AAAAA–BBB

• The first 5 digits represent the Branch Number;
• The last 3 digits are an Institution Number.

For Electronic Fund Transactions (EFT) the format starts with a zero, then the institution number, then the branch number all with no dashes. For example, if a transit number is AAAAA-BBB, the corresponding EFT code would be 0BBBAAAAA.

Good to know: Most of the time, the last digit of the branch number indicates the location of the branch:

• 0 are located in British Columbia and Yukon
• 1 are located in Western Québec, including Montreal and surrounding areas
• 2 are located in Ontario, including Toronto and the surrounding area
• 3 are located in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, excluding Labrador
• 4 are located in New Brunswick
• 5 are located in Eastern Québec, including Labrador
• 6 are located in Eastern Ontario, including Ottawa and surrounding area
• 7 are located in Manitoba and North-Western Ontario
• 8 are located in Saskatchewan
• 9 are located in Alberta, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut

If you want to find the transit number needed for you, be sure to visit this page and search inside our huge database of all the transit numbers from all of the banks in Canada.

Sort Code (UK)

The sort code is used by the British banking industry to route money transfers between banks domestically. The code identifies both the bank and the branch where the account is held.

The structure of the code is very simple and is comprised of six numbers split into three pairs, usually formatted as three pairs of numbers:

AA–BB–CC

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About The SWIFT, BIC, IBAN, Routing Number And Sort Codes

Unravel the complexities of banking codes like SWIFT, BIC, IBAN, and sort codes, vital for international finance. This guide clarifies their meanings, uses in global payments, and the importance of getting them right to avoid costly errors.