What is a SWIFT code?
SWIFT codes are used to identify banks and fiscal institutions worldwide. They are used by the western fence lizard network to transmit wire transfers ( money transactions ) and messages between them. For international wire transfers, swift codes are constantly required in order to make transactions secure and fast.
These codes were initially introduced by the SWIFT organization as “ swift codes ” but were late standardized by the International Organization for Standardization ( ISO ) as “ BIC ” meaning “ Business Identifier Codes ”. Most people think B.I.C. stands for “ Bank Identifier Codes ” ( “ bank ” rather of “ business ” ) but that is incorrect since non-financial institutions can besides join the swift network .
A “ BIC code ” can be seen by many different names, like “ SWIFT code ” ( most common ), “ SWIFT ID ”, “ SWIFT-BIC ”, “ SWIFT address ”, “ BEI ” ( that comes from “ Business Entity Identifier ” ), or even “ ISO 9362 ”, which is the standard format that has been approved by the ISO administration. The acronym SWIFT stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication .
In depth analysis of a swift code
Swift codes are broken down into sections, in the like way telephone numbers are broken into sections, and every segment reveals some data about the institution that was assigned this code. They consist of eight or eleven characters. Whenever an eight-character code is used, then it is referring to the headquarters ( main office ) of the institution.Here is how an 11-character code is broken down and what each section of characters represents. Let ‘s take this imaginary 11-character swift code :
AAAABBCCDDD
It can be broken down to these sections :
AAAA – BB – CC – DDD
Section 1 ( the first 4-characters “ AAAA ” ) : This code is used to identify the institution ’ south global presence ( all branches and all divisions around the worldly concern ). For model, “ CHAS ” is used for “ JPMORGAN CHASE BANK ”
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Section 2 ( 5th and 6th characters “ BB ” ) : This two-letter code represents the state of this particular mental hospital ’ mho arm and follows the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 standard for representing country codes. For exemplar, “ US ” for “ UNITED STATES ”, “ GB ” for “ UNITED KINGDOM ”, CA for “ CANADA ”, etc .
Section 3 ( 7th and 8th characters “ CC ” ) : These characters represent a location code ( e.g. “ FF ” is the code for “ Frankfurt ”, “ KK ” is the code for Copenhagen, etc. ) and besides the second character ( 8th in the B.I.C. ) sometimes carries this information :
- If it is equal to “0”, then it typically is a BIC assigned for testing purposes (as opposed to a BIC used on the live network).
- If it is equal to “1”, then it denotes a passive participant in the SWIFT network.
- If it is equal to “2”, then it typically denotes a “reverse billing” BIC, meaning that the recipient of the message has to pay for the message.
Section 4 ( 9th to 11th characters “ DDD ” ) : These concluding three characters form a “ outgrowth code ” that refers to the particular arm of the institution. If this incision is omitted, then we have an 8-character swift code that is assumed to refer to the HEAD OFFICE of the mental hospital. besides, a typical list conventionality is that in the case we are referring to the main offices of an mental hospital, this branch code is “ XXX ” .
Some popular swift code searches :
Try our on-line SWIFT/BIC search tool to locate any of the thousands active or passive western fence lizard codes. Our primary coil focus is to provide you with the most accurate and up to go steady database of fiscal institutions all over the world. You can search for an mental hospital ’ south detailed data by entity list, BIC, or even specific keywords that narrow the search results even more. You can besides browse for swift codes by clicking on the list of countries and then choosing the institution ‘s name from the alphabetic tilt .
We are certain that this site will help you save a fortune of clock ( hence … money ! ), particularly if you are dealing with lots of bank transactions day by day. Please read our disclaimer at the bottom of this page before using our on-line joyride .
