How a BIC is built
SWIFT describes the BIC as an eight-character code in three parts, with an optional fourth:
- Business party prefix: four letters or digits
- Country code: two letters, from ISO 3166-1
- Business party suffix: two letters or digits
- Branch identifier: three optional characters for a location, department or unit of the same party
Who has a BIC, and when one is needed
A BIC can belong to a financial or a non-financial institution, never to an individual. Some BICs are connected to the SWIFT network and address messages on it; others are not connected and serve only as references.
International transfers outside SEPA are normally routed by BIC. Inside the EU, Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 bars payment service providers from requiring a customer to give a BIC for a credit transfer or direct debit in euro, since 1 February 2014 for national payments and 1 February 2016 for cross-border ones. The IBAN is enough.
A fintech without its own BIC sends and receives through a partner institution's, one of the things a sponsor bank or a banking-as-a-service provider supplies.
BIC or IBAN?
- IBAN
- Identifies one account. A BIC identifies the institution, not the account.
- Sort code or routing number
- National bank identifiers, used inside one country's payment systems. A BIC is the international one.
Where a BIC shows up in a platform
Modules that do the work
- Accounts & IBANsCustomer accounts with their own IBANs, on the partner bank and the rails you choose.
- PayoutsMoney out to bank accounts, cards and wallets, on the rail that fits each payment.
Platforms that need it
Where it is written
The laws and standards this page's facts come from.
- SWIFT, Business Identifier Code (BIC)
- ISO 9362:2022, Business identifier code (BIC) (ISO)
- Regulation (EU) No 260/2012, the SEPA Regulation, consolidated to 8 April 2024 (EUR-Lex)
General information, not legal advice: what applies to you depends on your services and your market.