Swift code: the identifier that routes an international payment

SWIFT code: verified on the bank's own page

Ordering is a printed rule, not a rating: banks with more verified identifiers first, then alphabetically. Nothing here is ranked by how good a bank is.

Download the SWIFT code dataset (CSV), free to reuse with citation.

Reading a BIC without a directory

SWIFT, which administers the standard, describes it as an ISO standard rather than a private list: "BIC is the International ISO standard" for identifying business parties. The format itself is public even though the directory of issued codes is a licensed product, which is why a code can be checked for shape without any directory at all.

Eight or eleven characters, in fixed blocks: four letters for the institution, two for the country, two for the location, and an optional three for the branch. NatWest states the same rule from the customer's side: "A BIC (sometimes referred to as SWIFT code) is a unique set of characters, being either 8 or 11 numbers and letters." A code of any other length is wrong before you look anything up.

The country block is the most useful two characters on the page. A code ending GB in its fifth and sixth position belongs to a UK institution, US to an American one, and a supplier who sends you a code whose country block does not match the country they claim to bank in has given you the wrong code or is not who they say they are.

Barclays publishes its own as a worked example: "they'll need to know our SWIFT code: BUKBGB22". Read the blocks in that code and the rule stops being abstract: BUKB is the institution, GB the country, 22 the location.

Questions people ask

Is a SWIFT code the same as a BIC?

Yes. HSBC UK puts it in one line: "BIC stands for Business Identifier Code, although they're also referred to as a Bank Identifier Code or a Bank International Code." The names differ, the code does not.

Why do some banks give an eight-character code and some eleven?

The last three characters are an optional branch identifier. Where a bank routes everything centrally it publishes the eight-character form; where it wants payments directed to a particular office it publishes eleven. Santander UK, for instance, publishes the eleven-character form with an XXX branch block.

Do I need a SWIFT code to pay someone in the UK?

Not for a domestic payment. A UK payment between UK accounts uses the sort code and account number; the SWIFT code and IBAN are for payments crossing a border or a currency.