In Germany and Austria, the (BLZ) is a code that uniquely identifies a

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

. The

bank code A bank code is a code assigned by a central bank, a bank supervisory body or a Bankers Association in a country to all its licensed member banks or financial institutions. The rules vary to a great extent between the countries. Also the name of ban ...

always consists of eight digits in Germany and five digits in Austria. In Switzerland and Liechtenstein, the

bank clearing number A bank clearing number or BC number is a number used for the identification of financial institutions in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Bank clearing numbers are connected to the Swiss Interbank Clearing The Swiss Interbank Clearing (SIC) system i ...

(BC number) has the same meaning. The bank sort code must be specified for many business transactions in payment transactions (e.g.

bank transfer Wire transfer, bank transfer, or credit transfer, is a method of electronic funds transfer from one person or entity to another. A wire transfer can be made from one bank account to another bank account, or through a transfer of cash at a cash ...

). With the establishment of the

Single Euro Payments Area The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is a payment-integration initiative of the European Union for simplification of bank transfers denominated in euro. , there were 36 members in SEPA, consisting of the 27 member states of the European Union ...

(SEPA), which completely replaced the national payment systems from 1 February 2014, the bank codes in the participating countries were replaced by BIC (Business Identifier Code), also known as SWIFT code. At the same time, in some countries, including Germany, the bank routing numbers became part of the

International Bank Account Number The International Bank Account Number (IBAN) is an internationally agreed system of identifying bank accounts across national borders to facilitate the communication and processing of cross border transactions with a reduced risk of transcription ...

(IBAN) together with the account number.

See also