BIC is one of those acronyms that turns up on a payment screen with no explanation and then turns up again spelled differently. It stands for Business Identifier Code, it is the same thing your bank may call a SWIFT code, and it identifies an institution rather than an account. Once you know what each block of letters is doing, the rest of the international payment form stops looking arbitrary.
What the letters are doing
A BIC is eight or eleven characters in a fixed layout. The first four identify the institution and are usually a squashed version of its name. The next two are the ISO country code, so GB for the United Kingdom and US for the United States. The next two identify a location within that country. An optional final three identify a branch or a department. That structure is why you can sanity check a code by eye: the country block has to match the country the money is going to.
BIC and SWIFT are the same code
Banks use the two words interchangeably and it causes needless confusion. BIC is the formal name of the identifier under its international standard. SWIFT is the messaging network that made the code familiar, and because payment instructions travelled over that network the code became known by the network's name. Several UK banks title their help page with both words for exactly this reason. If a form asks for one and you have the other, they are the same thing.
When a payment actually needs it
For a domestic UK payment, never: the sort code and account number do the work. For a payment inside the single euro payments area, the IBAN is generally sufficient and the BIC is often optional, though many bank forms still ask. For a payment outside it, the BIC is normally required because there is no shared account numbering scheme to route on. When in doubt, supplying both the IBAN and the BIC is harmless and avoids a repair.
Where to read it and where not to
Read it from the receiving bank's own published page or from the recipient's own banking app, both of which state the code for that account. Do not read it from a general directory site unless you have no alternative, because merged and renamed institutions leave stale codes behind and the reader has no way to see how old a row is. This index quotes the banks' own wording with the date it was read, so you can check the source rather than trust a table.
Questions people ask about what is bic in banking
What does BIC stand for?
Business Identifier Code. It identifies a financial institution, and optionally a branch or department inside it.
Is BIC the same as SWIFT code?
Yes in practice. BIC is the formal name of the identifier and SWIFT is the network it travels over, and banks use both words for the same code.
Does a BIC identify my account?
No. It identifies the bank. Your account is identified by the IBAN, or domestically by the sort code and account number.
Why is a BIC sometimes eight characters and sometimes eleven?
Eight identifies the institution and its main location. The optional final three characters identify a particular branch or department.