All About The SWIFT, BIC, IBAN, Routing Number And Sort Codes
Terms like 
SWIFT code, BIC code, IBAN, and sort code are somewhat confusing. What exactly are these acronyms, and what are they used for in the world of international fx payments? How does the format work? Do you always need them when making international currency transfers to a bank abroad?
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Common questions about SWIFT, IBAN and BIC: Covered on MoneyTransferComparison.com
Does a bank account in every country have a SWIFT code and IBAN? what about BIC and Sort Codes? How do I find my own SWIFT and IBAN and how do I make sure I have it correctly? What are the international wire fees associated with each SWIFT transfer and what are intermediary bank fee? When transferring large amounts is can be particularly scary to get your SWIFT and IBAN wrong, and especially when you know any mis-payment can end up dragging for months.
This guide will help you understand what exactly is each of the above, why do you need it, and how the format works and what it represents, but you should be aware that you are not forced to use your bank for international transfers, and you can SAVE significant amounts of money by using bank alternatives:
SWIFT Code
SWIFT stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, which provides a network that enables banks anywhere in the world to send and receive information in a standardised and secure environment.
In practical terms, the SWIFT code is a standard format of Business Identifier Codes (BIC), which are used by banks when transferring money between them. The SWIFT code is usually required when you conduct an international money transfer.
*It’s important to keep in mind when having a discussion at the bank that the SWIFT code is the same thing as the SWIFT-BIC,BIC, BIC code, or SWIFT ID. All of these acronyms refer to the same code.
How Does SWIFT Help Me?
If your bank is affiliated with SWIFT, it can use the network to make very quick and secure money transfers. This helps clients move money around without any hassle.
What Does It Look Like?
The SWIFT code consists of either eight or 11 characters and is formatted as follows:
AAAA–BB–CC-DDD
- The first 4 characters are the bank code (only letters);
- The next 2 characters are the country code (only letters);
- Next 2 characters are the location code (letters and digits);
- The last 3 characters represent the branch code (letters and digits).
EXAMPLE Top 10 Banks* in the USA and their SWIFT codes:
- P.Morgan Chase & Co in New York City, NY –BOFAUS3DSHA
- Bank of America in Charlotte, North Carolina –BOFAUS3DCRD
- Wells Fargo in San Francisco, California –WFBIUS6S
- Citigroup in New York City, NY –CITIUS33
- Goldman Sachs Group in New York City, NY –GSCMUS33
- Morgan Stanley in New York City, NY –MSNYUS33
- S. Bancorp in Minneapolis, Minnesota –USBKUS44IMT
- Bank of New York Mellon in New York City, NY –IRVTUS3N
- PNC Financial Services in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania –PNCCUS33
- Capital One in McLean, Virginia –NFBKUSF1
Find more SWIFT codes globally
If you were looking for specific bank swift codes you can navigate there through this list:
*By assets under management according to Wikipedia.
One feature of SWIFT payments are the automated codes provided by institutions directly to customers when making a transfer.
There are dozens of SWIFT codes split into 9 categories, providing a range of information about the exact transfer. Examples include:
| MT 192 | Request for Cancellation |
| MT 256 | Advice of Non-Payment of Cheques |
| MT 300 | Foreign Exchange Confirmation |
SWIFT codes also share a uniform design that includes specific syntax and structure:
- Basic header block
- Application header block
- User header block (optional)
- Text block
- Trailer block
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.
The IBAN is 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 the Canadian 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: