BIC
More info
- Owner
- ISO (registrar: SWIFT)
- Spec
- ISO 9362
- Type
- Identifier
The eight- or eleven-character address that identifies a bank on the international payment network, better known as the SWIFT code.
The format is defined in ISO 9362, with SWIFT acting as registrar. Four characters for the institution, two for the country, two for the location and an optional three for a branch. HANDSESS is Handelsbanken in Stockholm; DEUTDEFF is Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt. The location code gives away more than you might expect: a zero as its second character marks a test address.
A BIC says which bank, not which account; that is the IBAN's job. Within SEPA the BIC became redundant once EU Regulation 260/2012 declared the IBAN sufficient, for domestic payments from 2014 and cross-border ones from 2016. Elsewhere it is still mandatory, and a mistyped BIC remains a classic reason for an international transfer to bounce back a week later.