BBAN: The Domestic Part of an IBAN

What is a BBAN?

In short

A BBAN, or basic bank account number, is the national part of an IBAN: everything after the two-letter country code and the two check digits. Each country sets its own BBAN format, which usually joins a bank identifier, sometimes a branch identifier, and the account number.

Also called

Basic bank account number, Domestic account number

Family

Payments and transfers

Facts checked

13 October 2026

How a BBAN is built

The IBAN standard, ISO 13616, leaves the BBAN to each country, and SWIFT publishes every national format in the IBAN Registry. The length and the mix of letters and digits are fixed per country.

United Kingdom: 18 characters, a four-letter bank code, a six-digit sort code and an eight-digit account number
Germany: 18 digits, an eight-digit bank code and a ten-digit account number
Romania: 20 characters, a four-letter bank code and 16 more
Norway: 11 digits, the shortest in the registry
Russian Federation: 29 characters, the longest

Where a BBAN is used

EU law gives the BBAN a narrow role. Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 defines the BBAN as an account identifier that can be used only for national payments, while the same account is identified by its IBAN across borders. The same regulation makes the IBAN the identifier for credit transfers and direct debits in euro.

A product that issues accounts builds each IBAN from the BBAN: the institution's bank identifier, the customer's account number, then check digits computed over both. The bank identifier belongs to a licensed institution, so a fintech without one issues accounts under its partner's.

BBAN or IBAN?

IBAN: The BBAN with a country code and two check digits in front, so that a bank in any country can read and validate it.
Sort code and account number: The UK's domestic identifiers. With a four-letter bank code in front, they make up the UK BBAN.

Where a BBAN shows up in a platform

Modules that do the work

Platforms that need it

Guides that go deeper

How to launch a neobank without a banking licenceYour own e-money licence, an EMI's agent, a partner bank or a bank licence: how each route works, who holds the money, and what safeguarding and deposit protection cover.

Where it is written

The laws and standards this page's facts come from.

General information, not legal advice: what applies to you depends on your services and your market.