European Central Bank - Swift Codes or BIC Codes

SWIFT Code stands for ‘Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication’ code. A SWIFT code is also called BIC Code – ‘Bank Identification Code’ which is used to identify banks uniquely throughout the world.

The SWIFT code is an 8 or 11 alphanumeric characters code that uniquely identifies financial institution. If a SWIFT code is eleven characters, this means that the bank has added a three-digit code to denote a specific branch of a bank.

First 4 characters – Bank Code – Identifies financial institution uniquely (only letters)

Next 2 characters – Country Code (only letters)

Next 2 characters - Location Code (Letters and Digits)

Optional Last 3 characters – Branch Code of a bank (‘XXX’ for main office) (Letters and Digits)

The above mentioned format of Bank Identifier Codes (BIC) or Swift Code is approved by the International Standard Organization (ISO) and represents a particular bank or bank branch. These codes are used for transferring the money between banks especially the international wire transfers and are also used for exchanging other messages between banks. If you want to do a international direct wire transfer between banks, your bank will probably ask for the SWIFT code of the bank receiving the funds.