Thursday, 26 December 2013

How to Find a Swift Code for a Foreign Bank

A SWIFT code is a unique code for identification that every bank has and is a format for Bank Identifier Codes (BIC). A swift code is used for transferring money and messages between banks.

To get the swift code of a foreign bank, one can contact the local bank branch or through the internet to ask for these details.

The SWIFT code consists of 8 or 11 characters, First 4 characters - bank code (only letters).
Next 2 characters - ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code (only letters),
Next 2 characters - location code (letters and digits) (passive participant will have 1 in the second character),
Last 3 characters - branch code, optional ('XXX' for primary office) (letters and digits).

1 comment:

  1. If you're looking to find a swift code for the bank you're trying to send money to, you can use: http://bank-code.net/

    It list all banks in the world and their associated swift code, along with a breakdown of the actual swift code so that you can understand what it means.

    Here's an example for BARCLAYS BANK PLC bank located in NEW YORK: http://bank-code.net/swift-code/BARCUS33XXX.html

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