![WessexBankStatement](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/WessexBankStatement.png)
The International Bank Account Number (IBAN) is an internationally agreed system of identifying
bank account
A bank account is a financial account maintained by a bank or other financial institution in which the financial transactions between the bank and a customer are recorded. Each financial institution sets the terms and conditions for each type o ...
s across national borders to facilitate the communication and processing of cross border transactions with a reduced risk of
transcription error
A transcription error is a specific type of data entry error that is commonly made by human operators or by optical character recognition (OCR) programs. Human transcription errors are commonly the result of typographical mistakes; putting one’ ...
s. An IBAN uniquely identifies the account of a customer at a financial institution. It was originally adopted by the
European Committee for Banking Standards (ECBS) and since 1997 as the
international standard
international standard is a technical standard developed by one or more international standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use worldwide. The most prominent such organization is the International Or ...
ISO 13616 under the
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Ar ...
(ISO). The current version is ISO 13616:2020, which indicates the
Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication
Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to:
* SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks
** SWIFT code
* Swift (programming language)
* Swift (bird), a family of birds
It may also refer to:
Organizations
* SWIFT, a ...
(SWIFT) as the formal registrar. Initially developed to facilitate payments within the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
, it has been implemented by most European countries and numerous countries in other parts of the world, mainly in the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
and the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
. As of May 2020, 77 countries were using the IBAN numbering system.
[
The IBAN consists of up to 34 alphanumeric characters comprising a country code; two ]check digit
A check digit is a form of redundancy check used for error detection on identification numbers, such as bank account numbers, which are used in an application where they will at least sometimes be input manually. It is analogous to a binary parity ...
s; and a number that includes the domestic bank account number, branch identifier, and potential routing information. The check digits enable a check of the bank account number to confirm its integrity before submitting a transaction.
Background
Before IBAN, differing national standards for bank account identification (i.e. bank, branch, routing codes, and account number) were confusing for some users. This often led to necessary routing information being missing from payments. Routing information as specified by ISO 9362
ISO 9362 is an international standard for Business Identifier Codes (BIC), a unique identifier for business institutions, approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). BIC is also known as SWIFT-BIC, SWIFT ID, or SWIFT code, ...
(also known as Business Identifier Codes (BIC), SWIFT ID or SWIFT code, and SWIFT-BIC) does not require a specific format for the transaction so the identification of accounts and transaction types is left to agreements of the transaction partners. It also does not contain check digits, so errors of transcription were not detectable and it was not possible for a sending bank to validate the routing information prior to submitting the payment. Routing errors caused delayed payments and incurred extra costs to the sending and receiving banks and often to intermediate routing banks.
In 1997, to overcome these difficulties, the International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Ar ...
(ISO) published ISO 13616:1997. This proposal had a degree of flexibility that the European Committee for Banking Standards (ECBS) believed would make it unworkable, and they produced a "slimmed down" version of the standard which, amongst other things, permitted only upper-case letters and required that the IBAN for each country have a fixed length.[ ISO 13616:1997 was subsequently withdrawn and replaced by ISO 13616:2003.][ The standard was revised again in 2007 when it was split into two parts. ISO 13616-1:2007 "specifies the elements of an international bank account number (IBAN) used to facilitate the processing of data internationally in data interchange, in financial environments as well as within and between other industries" but "does not specify internal procedures, file organization techniques, storage media, languages, etc. to be used in its implementation". ISO 13616-2:2007 describes "the Registration Authority (RA) responsible for the registry of IBAN formats that are compliant with ISO 13616-1 ndthe procedures for registering ISO 13616-compliant IBAN formats". The official IBAN registrar under ISO 13616-2:2007 is ]SWIFT
Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to:
* SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks
** SWIFT code
* Swift (programming language)
* Swift (bird), a family of birds
It may also refer to:
Organizations
* SWIFT, ...
.
IBAN imposes a flexible but regular format sufficient for account identification and contains validation information to avoid errors of transcription. It carries all the routing information needed to get a payment from one bank to another wherever it may be; it contains key bank account details such as country code, branch codes (known as sort code
Sort codes are the domestic bank codes used to route money transfers between financial institutions in the United Kingdom, and in the Republic of Ireland. They are six-digit hierarchical numerical addresses that specify clearing banks, clearing s ...
s in the UK and Ireland) and account numbers, and it contains check digits which can be validated at source according to a single standard procedure. Where used, IBANs have reduced trans-national money transfer errors to under 0.1% of total payments
Structure
The IBAN consists of up to 34 alphanumeric characters, as follows:
* country code using ISO 3166-1 alpha-2
ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes are two-letter country codes defined in ISO 3166-1, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), to represent countries, dependent territories, and special areas of ...
– two letters,
* check digit
A check digit is a form of redundancy check used for error detection on identification numbers, such as bank account numbers, which are used in an application where they will at least sometimes be input manually. It is analogous to a binary parity ...
s – two digits, and
* Basic Bank Account Number (BBAN) – up to 30 alphanumeric characters that are country-specific.[
The check digits represent the ]checksum
A checksum is a small-sized block of data derived from another block of digital data for the purpose of detecting errors that may have been introduced during its transmission or storage. By themselves, checksums are often used to verify data ...
of the bank account number which is used by banking systems to confirm that the number contains no simple errors.
In order to facilitate reading by humans, IBANs are traditionally expressed in groups of four characters separated by spaces, the last group being of variable length as shown in the example below; when transmitted electronically however spaces are omitted.[
Permitted IBAN characters are the digits ''0'' to ''9'' and the 26 Latin alphabetic characters ''A'' to ''Z''.][ This applies even in countries where these characters are not used in the national language (e.g. Greece).
]
Basic Bank Account Number
The Basic Bank Account Number (BBAN) format is decided by the national central bank or designated payment authority of each country. There is no consistency between the formats adopted. The national authority may register its BBAN format with SWIFT but is not obliged to do so. It may adopt IBAN without registration. SWIFT also acts as the registration authority for the SWIFT system, which is used by most countries that have not adopted IBAN. A major difference between the two systems is that under SWIFT there is no requirement that BBANs used within a country be of a pre-defined length.
The BBAN must be of a fixed length for the country and comprise case-insensitive In computers, case sensitivity defines whether uppercase and lowercase letters are treated as distinct (case-sensitive) or equivalent (case-insensitive). For instance, when users interested in learning about dogs search an e-book, "dog" and "Dog" a ...
alphanumeric characters. It includes the domestic bank account number, branch identifier, and potential routing information. Each country can have a different national routing/account numbering system, up to a maximum of 30 alphanumeric characters.
Check digits
The check digits enable the sending bank (or its customer) to perform a sanity check
A sanity check or sanity test is a basic test to quickly evaluate whether a claim or the result of a calculation can possibly be true. It is a simple check to see if the produced material is rational (that the material's creator was thinking ration ...
of the routing destination and account number from a single string of data at the time of data entry. This check is guaranteed to detect any instances where a single character has been omitted, duplicated, mistyped or where two characters have been transposed. Thus routing and account number errors are virtually eliminated.[
]
Processing
One of the design aims of the IBAN was to enable as much validation as possible to be done at the point of data entry. In particular, the computer program that accepts an IBAN will be able to validate:
* Country code
* Number of characters in the IBAN correspond to the number specified for the country code
* BBAN format specified for the country code
* Account number, bank code and country code combination is compatible with the check digits
The check digits are calculated using MOD-97-10 as per ISO/IEC 7064:2003 (abbreviated to ''mod-97'' in this article), which specifies a set of check character systems capable of protecting strings against errors which occur when people copy or key data. In particular, the standard states that the following can be detected:
* All single substitution errors (the substitution of a single character for another, for example 4234
for 1234
)
* All or nearly all single (local) transposition errors (the transposition of two single characters, either adjacent or with one character between them, for example 12354
or 12543
for 12345
)
* All or nearly all shift errors (shifts of the whole string to the left or right)
* High proportion of double substitution errors (two separate single substitution errors in the same string, for example 7234587
for 1234567
)
* High proportion of all other errors
The underlying rules for IBANs is that the account-servicing financial institution should issue an IBAN, as there are a number of areas where different IBANs could be generated from the same account and branch numbers that would satisfy the generic IBAN validation rules. In particular cases where 00
is a valid check digit, 97
will not be a valid check digit, likewise, if 01
is a valid check digit, 98
will not be a valid check digit, similarly with 02
and 99
.
The UN CEFACT TBG5 UN/CEFACT TBG5 is the entity responsible for financial services under the United Nations Centre for Trade facilitation and Electronic Business, (UN/CEFACT) under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).
As an International Trade ...
has published a free IBAN validation service in 32 languages for all 57 countries that have adopted the IBAN standard. They have also published the Javascript source code
In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...
of the verification algorithm.
An English language IBAN checker for ECBS member country bank accounts is available on its website.
Algorithms
Validating the IBAN
An IBAN is validated by converting it into an integer
An integer is the number zero (), a positive natural number (, , , etc.) or a negative integer with a minus sign (−1, −2, −3, etc.). The negative numbers are the additive inverses of the corresponding positive numbers. In the language ...
and performing a basic ''mod-97'' operation (as described in ISO 7064
ISO/IEC 7064 is a standard promulgated by the International Standards Organization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) that defines algorithms for calculating check digit characters. The checks should be applicable to alphanu ...
) on it. If the IBAN is valid, the remainder equals 1.[In equations, the remainder of ''A'' divided by ''B'' is denoted , See Remainders.] The algorithm of IBAN validation is as follows:[
# Check that the total IBAN length is correct as per the country. If not, the IBAN is invalid
# Move the four initial characters to the end of the string
# Replace each letter in the string with two digits, thereby expanding the string, where A = 10, B = 11, ..., Z = 35
# Interpret the string as a decimal integer and compute the remainder of that number on division by 97
If the remainder is 1, the check digit test is passed and the IBAN might be valid.
Example (fictitious United Kingdom bank, sort code 12-34-56, account number 98765432):
:
]
Generating IBAN check digits
According to the ECBS "generation of the IBAN shall be the exclusive responsibility of the bank/branch servicing the account".[ The ECBS document replicates part of the ISO/IEC 7064:2003 standard as a method for generating check digits in the range 02 to 98. Check digits in the ranges 00 to 96, 01 to 97, and 03 to 99 will also provide validation of an IBAN, but the standard is silent as to whether or not these ranges may be used.
The preferred algorithm is:][
# Check that the total IBAN length is correct as per the country. If not, the IBAN is invalid.
# Replace the two check digits by 00 (e.g., GB00 for the UK).
# Move the four initial characters to the end of the string.
# Replace the letters in the string with digits, expanding the string as necessary, such that A or a = 10, B or b = 11, and Z or z = 35. Each alphabetic character is therefore replaced by 2 digits
# Convert the string to an integer (i.e. ignore leading zeroes).
# Calculate ''mod-97'' of the new number, which results in the remainder.
# Subtract the remainder from 98 and use the result for the two check digits. If the result is a single-digit number, pad it with a leading 0 to make a two-digit number.
]
Modulo operation on IBAN
Any computer programming language
A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language.
The description of a programming ...
or software package that is used to compute ''D'' mod ''97'' directly must have the ability to handle integer
An integer is the number zero (), a positive natural number (, , , etc.) or a negative integer with a minus sign (−1, −2, −3, etc.). The negative numbers are the additive inverses of the corresponding positive numbers. In the language ...
s of more than 30 digits. In practice, this can only be done by software that either supports arbitrary-precision arithmetic
In computer science, arbitrary-precision arithmetic, also called bignum arithmetic, multiple-precision arithmetic, or sometimes infinite-precision arithmetic, indicates that calculations are performed on numbers whose digits of precision are li ...
or that can handle 219-bit (unsigned) integers,[The IBAN value, ZZ59ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ, is converted to the largest possible integer, approximately 3.5 × 1065 per ISO 7064 MOD-97-10 (before taking the modulus). 2219 - 1 is approximately equal to 8.4 × 1065, thus 219-bit unsigned integers can accommodate all valid IBAN values.] features that are often not standard. If the application software in use does not provide the ability to handle integers of this size, the modulo operation
In computing, the modulo operation returns the remainder or signed remainder of a division, after one number is divided by another (called the '' modulus'' of the operation).
Given two positive numbers and , modulo (often abbreviated as ) is th ...
can be performed in a piece-wise manner (as is the case with the UN CEFACT TBG5 UN/CEFACT TBG5 is the entity responsible for financial services under the United Nations Centre for Trade facilitation and Electronic Business, (UN/CEFACT) under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).
As an International Trade ...
JavaScript program).
Piece-wise calculation can be done in many ways. One such way is as follows:
# Starting from the leftmost digit of ''D'', construct a number using the first 9 digits and call it ''N''.[231 is approximately equal to , making it possible for any 9-digit integer to be handled using 32 bit integer arithmetic]
# Calculate ''N'' mod ''97''.
# Construct a new 9-digit ''N'' by concatenating the above result (step 2) with the next 7 digits of ''D''. If there are fewer than 7 digits remaining in ''D'' but at least one, then construct a new ''N'', which will have less than 9 digits, from the above result (step 2) followed by the remaining digits of ''D''
# Repeat steps 2–3 until all the digits of ''D'' have been processed
The result of the final calculation in step 2 will be ''D'' mod 97 = ''N'' mod ''97''.
=Example
=
In this example, the above algorithm for ''D'' mod 97 will be applied to ''D'' = . (The digits are colour-coded to aid the description below.) If the result is one, the IBAN corresponding to ''D'' passes the check digit test.
# Construct ''N'' from the first 9 digits of D
#: ''N'' =
# Calculate ''N'' mod 97 = 70
# Construct a new 9-digit ''N'' from the above result (step 2) followed by the next 7 digits of ''D''.
#: ''N'' = 70
# Calculate ''N'' mod 97 = 29
# Construct a new 9-digit ''N'' from the above result (step 4) followed by the next 7 digits of ''D''.
#: ''N'' = 29
# Calculate ''N'' mod 97 = 24
# Construct a new ''N'' from the above result (step 6) followed by the remaining 5 digits of ''D''.
#: ''N'' = 24
# Calculate ''N'' mod 97 = 1
From step 8, the final result is ''D'' mod 97 = 1 and the IBAN has passed this check digit test.
National check digits
In addition to the IBAN check digits, many countries have their own national check digits used within the BBAN, as part of their national account number formats. Each country determines its own algorithm used for assigning and validating the national check digits - some relying on international standards, some inventing their own national standard, and some allowing each bank to decide if or how to implement them. Some algorithms apply to the entire BBAN, and others to one or more of the fields within it. The check digits may be considered an integral part of the account number, or an external field separate from the account number, depending on the country's rules.
Most of the variations used are based on two categories of algorithms:
- ''ISO 7064 MOD-97-10'': Treat the account number as a large integer, divide it by 97 and use the remainder or its complement as the check digit(s).
- ''Weighted Sum'': Treat the account number as a series of individual numbers, multiply each number by a weight value according to its position in the string, sum the products, divide the sum by a modulus (usually 10 or 11) and use the remainder or its complement as the check digit.
In both cases, there may first be a translation from alphanumeric characters to numbers using conversion tables.
The complement, if used, means the remainder is subtracted from a fixed value, usually the modulus or the modulus plus one (with the common exception that a remainder of 0 results in 0, denoted as 0 → 0,as opposed to e.g. 0 → 97 meaning that if the reminder is zero the checksum is 97).
Note that some national specifications define the weights order from right to left, but since the BBAN length in the IBAN is fixed, they can be used from left to right as well.
Adoption
International bank transactions use either an IBAN or the ISO 9362
ISO 9362 is an international standard for Business Identifier Codes (BIC), a unique identifier for business institutions, approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). BIC is also known as SWIFT-BIC, SWIFT ID, or SWIFT code, ...
Business Identifier Code system ( BIC or SWIFT
Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to:
* SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks
** SWIFT code
* Swift (programming language)
* Swift (bird), a family of birds
It may also refer to:
Organizations
* SWIFT, ...
code) in conjunction with the BBAN (Basic Bank Account Number).
EEA and territories
The banks of most countries in Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
publish account numbers using both the IBAN format and the nationally recognised identifiers, this being mandatory within the European Economic Area
The European Economic Area (EEA) was established via the ''Agreement on the European Economic Area'', an international agreement which enables the extension of the European Union's single market to member states of the European Free Trade Ass ...
.
Day-to-day administration of banking in British Overseas Territories
The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remna ...
varies from territory to territory; some, such as South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
)
, anthem = "God Save the King"
, song_type =
, song =
, image_map = South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in United Kingdom.svg
, map_caption = Location of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in the southern Atlantic Oce ...
, have too small a population to warrant a banking system while others, such as Bermuda
)
, anthem = "God Save the King"
, song_type = National song
, song = " Hail to Bermuda"
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, mapsize2 =
, map_caption2 =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name =
, e ...
, have a thriving financial sector. The use of the IBAN is up to the local government—Gibraltar
)
, anthem = " God Save the King"
, song = " Gibraltar Anthem"
, image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg
, map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe
, map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green
, mapsize =
, image_map2 = Gib ...
, formerly part of the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
is required to use the IBAN, as are the Crown Dependencies, which use the British clearing system, and the British Virgin Islands
)
, anthem = "God Save the King"
, song_type = Territorial song
, song = "Oh, Beautiful Virgin Islands"
, image_map = File:British Virgin Islands on the globe (Americas centered).svg
, map_caption =
, mapsize = 290px
, image_map2 = Brit ...
have chosen to do so. , no other British Overseas Territories have chosen to use the IBAN.[ Banks in the ]Caribbean Netherlands
)
, image_map = BES islands location map.svg
, map_caption = Location of the Caribbean Netherlands (green and circled). From left to right: Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius
, elevation_max_m = 887
, elevation_max_footnotes =
, demographics ...
also do not use the IBAN.
Single Euro Payments Area
The IBAN designation scheme was chosen as the foundation for electronic straight-through processing
Straight-through processing (STP) is a method used by financial companies to speed up financial transactions by processing without manual intervention (straight-through).
It was developed for equities trading in the early 1990s in London for auto ...
in the European Economic Area
The European Economic Area (EEA) was established via the ''Agreement on the European Economic Area'', an international agreement which enables the extension of the European Union's single market to member states of the European Free Trade Ass ...
. The European Parliament mandated that a bank charge
The term bank charge covers all charges and fees made by a bank to their customers. In common parlance, the term often relates to charges in respect of personal current accounts or checking account. These charges may take many forms, including:
* ...
needs to be the same amount for domestic credit transfers as for cross-border credit transfers regulated in decision 2560/2001 (updated in 924/2009). This regulation took effect in 2003. Only payments in euro up to €12,500 to a bank account designated by its IBAN were covered by the regulation, not payments in other currencies.
The Euro Payments regulation was the foundation for the decision to create a 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). The European Central Bank
The European Central Bank (ECB) is the prime component of the monetary Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's Big Four (banking)#Intern ...
has created the TARGET2
TARGET2 (Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross Settlement Express Transfer System) is the real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system for the Eurozone, and is available to non-Eurozone countries. It was developed by and is owned by the Eurosystem ...
interbank network that unifies the technical infrastructure of the 26 central banks of the European Union (although Sweden has opted out). SEPA is a self-regulatory initiative by the banking sector of Europe as represented in the European Payments Council
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 ...
(EPC). The European Union made the scheme mandatory through the Payment Services Directive
The Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2, Directive (EU) 2015/2366, which replaced the Payment Services Directive (PSD), Directive 2007/64/EC) is an EU Directive, administered by the European Commission (Directorate General Internal Market) t ...
published in 2007. Since January 2008, all countries were required to support SEPA credit transfer, and SEPA direct debit was required to be supported since November 2009. The regulation on SEPA payments increased the charge cap (same price for domestic payments as for cross-border payments) to €50,000.
With a further decision of the European Parliament, the IBAN scheme for bank accounts fully replaced the domestic numbering schemes from 31 December 2012. On 16 December 2010, the European Commission published regulations that made IBAN support mandatory for domestic credit transfer by 2013 and for domestic direct debit by 2014 (with a 12 and 24 months transition period respectively). Some countries had already replaced their traditional bank account scheme by IBAN. This included Switzerland where IBAN was introduced for national credit transfer on 1 January 2006 and the support for the old bank account numbers was not required from 1 January 2010.
Based on a 20 December 2011 memorandum, the EU parliament resolved the mandatory dates for the adoption of the IBAN on 14 February 2012. On 1 February 2014, all national systems for credit transfer and direct debit were abolished and replaced by an IBAN-based system. This was then extended to all cross-border SEPA transactions on 1 February 2016 (Article 5 Section 7). After these dates the IBAN is sufficient to identify an account for home and foreign financial transactions in SEPA countries and banks are no longer permitted to require that the customer supply the BIC for the beneficiary's bank.
In the run-up to the 1 February 2014 deadline, it became apparent that many old bank account numbers had not been allocated IBANs—an issue that was addressed on a country-by-country basis. In Germany, for example, Deutsche Bundesbank
The Deutsche Bundesbank (), literally "German Federal Bank", is the central bank of the Federal Republic of Germany and as such part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). Due to its strength and former size, the Bundesbank is the most ...
and the German Banking Industry Committee
The German Banking Industry Committee (GBIC) (german: Die Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft / ''DK''), known until 2011 as the Central Credit Committee (german: Zentraler Kreditausschuss / ''ZKA'') is an industry association of the German banking industry. ...
required that all holders of German bank codes ("Bankleitzahl") published the specifics of their IBAN generation format taking into account not only the generation of check digits but also the handling of legacy bank codes, thereby enabling third parties to generate IBANs independently of the bank. The first such catalogue was published in June 2013 as a variant of the old bank code catalog ("Bankleitzahlendatei").
Non-EEA
Banks in numerous non-European countries including most states of the Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
, North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
and the Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
have implemented the IBAN format for account identification.[ In some countries the IBAN is used on an ''ad hoc'' basis, an example was ]Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
where account numbers used for international transfers by some domestic banks had additional aliases that followed the IBAN format as a precursor to formal SWIFT registration. This practice in Ukraine ended on 1 November 2019 when all Ukrainian banks had fully switched to the IBAN standard.
The degree to which a bank verifies the validity of a recipient's bank account number depends on the configuration of the transmitting bank's software—many major software packages supply bank account validation as a standard function. Some banks outside Europe may not recognize IBAN, though this is expected to diminish with time. Non-European banks usually accept IBANs for accounts in Europe, although they might not treat IBANs differently from other foreign bank account numbers. In particular, they might not check the IBAN's validity prior to sending the transfer.
Banks in the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
do not use IBAN as account numbers for U.S. accounts and use ABA routing transit number
In the United States, an ABA routing transit number (ABA RTN) is a nine-digit code printed on the bottom of checks to identify the financial institution on which it was drawn. The American Bankers Association (ABA) developed the system in 1910 ...
s. Any adoption of the IBAN standard by U.S. banks would likely be initiated by ANSI ASC X9
__FORCETOC__
The Accredited Standards Committee X9 (ASC X9, Inc.) is an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) accredited standards developing organization, responsible for developing voluntary open consensus standards for the financial ...
, the U.S. financial services standards development organization: a working group (X9B20) was established as an X9 subcommittee to generate an IBAN construction for U.S. bank accounts.
Canadian financial institutions have not adopted IBAN and use routing numbers issued by Payments Canada
Canadian Payments Association, carrying on business under the brand name Payments Canada, is an organization that operates a payment clearing and settlement system in Canada. The Canadian Payments Association was established by the ''Canadian Pa ...
for domestic transfers, and SWIFT for international transfers. There is no formal governmental or private sector regulatory requirement in Canada for the major banks to use IBAN.
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
do not use IBAN. They use Bank State Branch
A Bank State Branch (often referred to as "BSB") is the name used in Australia for a bank code, which is a branch identifier. The BSB is normally used in association with the account number system used by each financial institution. The structure ...
codes for domestic transfers and SWIFT for international transfers.
IBAN formats by country
This table summarises the IBAN formats by country:
* The ''kk'' after the two-character ISO country code represents the check digits calculated from the rest of the IBAN characters. If it is a constant for the country concerned, this will be stated in the Comments column. This happens where the BBAN has its own check digits that use the same algorithm as the IBAN check digits
* The BBAN format column shows the format of the BBAN part of an IBAN in terms of upper case alpha characters (A–Z) denoted by "a", numeric characters (0–9) denoted by "n" and mixed case alphanumeric characters (a–z, A–Z, 0–9) denoted by "c". For example, the Bulgarian BBAN (4a,6n,8c) consists of 4 alpha characters, followed by 6 numeric characters, then by 8 mixed-case alpha-numeric characters
* Descriptions in the ''Comments'' field have been standardised with country-specific names in brackets. The format of the various fields can be deduced from the BBAN field
In addition to the above, the IBAN is under development in countries below but has not yet been catalogued for general international use.
In this list
* "kk"
represent the IBAN checksum
* "a"
represents an alphabetic character
* "c"
represents an alphanumeric character
* "n"
represents a numeric character.
See also
* Bank card number
A payment card number, primary account number (PAN), or simply a card number, is the card identifier found on payment cards, such as credit cards and debit cards, as well as stored-value cards, gift cards and other similar cards. In some situati ...
* Bank regulation
Bank regulation is a form of government regulation which subjects banks to certain requirements, restrictions and guidelines, designed to create market transparency between banking institutions and the individuals and corporations with whom they ...
* ABA routing transit number
In the United States, an ABA routing transit number (ABA RTN) is a nine-digit code printed on the bottom of checks to identify the financial institution on which it was drawn. The American Bankers Association (ABA) developed the system in 1910 ...
* Routing number (Canada)
A routing number is the term for bank codes in Canada. Routing numbers consist of eight numerical digits with a dash between the fifth and sixth digit for paper financial documents encoded with magnetic ink character recognition and nine numerical ...
Notes
References
External links
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{{Bank codes and identification
Banking terms
Financial regulation
ISO standards
Bank codes
Checksum algorithms