The Bank Identifier Code, also known as a BIC or BIC code, is a universal method of identifying financial institutions in order to facilitate the automated processing of payments. Used to route cross-border (and some domestic payments) to a branch or payments center, a Bank Identifier Code can handle the relevant transaction.
A BIC code consists of eight or eleven contiguous characters comprising:
Example of a Bank Identifier Code
In order to facilitate a straight through cross-border payment, two identification codes are required: the Bank Identifier Code of the receiving bank and the beneficiary’s International Bank Account Number (IBAN). BICs and IBANs are used together to concisely identify the location of a specific account and as such are the key information required in enabling payment to benefit from STP*. In many cases, the Bank Identifier Code can be derived from the domestic account details. In the EU the CREDEURO convention** requires both the Bank Identifier Code and the International Bank Account Number to enable customers to benefit from reduced transaction costs.
Further information:
| Bank Code | 4 alphabetic characters identifying an individual bank, for example, “DEUT” identifying Deutsche Bank |
| Country Code | 2 letter ISO country code such as DE for Germany |
| Location Code | 2 alphanumerical characters (except zero) identifying the location of the institution within the specific country such as FF for Frankfurt |
| Branch Code | 3 alphanumeric characters, (optional) identifying the specific office or branch |
Example of a Bank Identifier Code
Further information:
- Validate BIC and IBAN data
- Convert your domestic data to BICs & IBANs
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