What Is an IBAN? IBAN and SWIFT Codes Explained (2026)
Two codes, endlessly confused, doing two different jobs. An IBAN identifies one specific bank account. A SWIFT code identifies the bank holding it. Most international payment forms want both and explain neither.
Neither one is a secret and neither one is generated fresh. A UK IBAN is your existing sort code and account number wrapped in an international format, and a SWIFT code is a short identifier for your bank that has not changed in years.
This guide sets out what every character means, where to find yours, which one a given payment actually needs, and what happens when one is wrong.
It also covers the thing neither code controls, which is what the payment costs, because that is decided somewhere else entirely.
Before You Send: What the Details Do and Do Not Control
Getting an IBAN and SWIFT code right decides whether a payment arrives and where it lands. It has no effect at all on what the payment costs, and the two questions get answered in the same breath often enough that it is worth separating them at the top.
Correct Details Are Free, the Exchange Rate Is Not
Every charge on an international payment comes from one of two places. The exchange rate applied when the currency changes, which is where most of it hides, and any fee a correspondent bank deducts as the money passes through. Neither depends on how carefully you typed the account number.
A payment with flawless details, sent through a bank applying a 3 percent margin, costs 3 percent. The details are the address on the envelope, not the postage.
See What Each Route Actually Delivers
Fees and exchange rates are quoted separately, which means only the fee looks like a price. Put a real amount and the currencies you actually use into the comparison below, and it will show what lands at the other end on each route rather than what was advertised.
What Is an IBAN?
An IBAN is an International Bank Account Number, a single string identifying one specific account for cross-border payments. It begins with a two letter country code, then two check digits, then the domestic account details that country already uses. Its purpose is automation: a system can validate and route it without interpreting a local format.
What the Characters Actually Mean
The first two characters are the ISO country code, so GB for the United Kingdom, DE for Germany, ES for Spain. The next two are check digits, calculated from everything that follows. After that comes the Basic Bank Account Number, which is simply that country's own account identifier in its own format.
Length varies by country because the domestic part varies. A country with short account numbers has a short IBAN and one with longer domestic identifiers has a longer one. There is no universal length, which is why validation is done by the check digits rather than by counting characters.
What an IBAN Number in the UK Looks Like
A UK IBAN is 22 characters: GB, two check digits, a four letter bank code, your six digit sort code and your eight digit account number. With a sort code of 20-00-00 and an account number of 12345678 at a bank whose code is BARC, the IBAN is GB, two check digits, BARC, 200000, then 12345678.
Nothing new is created. Your IBAN number in the UK contains exactly the numbers you already give to British payers, which is why your bank can generate it instantly. Our guide to what a sort code is covers the six digit half of that in full.
Who Runs the Standard
IBAN is defined by ISO 13616, and Swift is the registration authority that ISO designated for national IBAN formats. Each country has its own registered format, and only national standards bodies or national central banks can request a registration. Swift publishes the registry containing the technical specification for every compliant national format.
That matters because it explains why the formats differ and why they are still reliable. Nobody invents an IBAN layout, it goes through a registration process, and every payment system in the world reads from the same published list.
How to Find Your IBAN Number
Your banking app is the fastest place, normally under account details or a heading about international payments. It is also printed on statements and available in online banking, and your bank will confirm it on the phone. Most UK banks show it beside the sort code and account number rather than hiding it.
In the App, on a Statement, or by Asking
Look for a section labelled account details, international, or receive money from abroad. Banks vary in where they put it, and almost all of them have it somewhere in the app. Statements normally carry it in the header block alongside the domestic details.
If you genuinely cannot find it, ask the bank. That takes a few minutes and produces the correct answer, which is a better outcome than the alternative below.
Why You Should Never Build One Yourself
Plenty of sites will construct an IBAN from a sort code and account number, and the result usually looks right. Usually is doing a lot of work in that sentence. The four letter bank code has to match the exact institution and the check digits have to be computed correctly, and a generated string that is structurally valid but wrong is worse than no string at all.
A structurally valid wrong IBAN passes every automated check and sends money somewhere unintended, which is precisely the failure the validation cannot catch. It costs nothing to ask your bank and it removes the whole category of problem.
Never Use an IBAN Generator for Your Own Account
A generated IBAN is a guess dressed as a fact. The four letter bank code has to match the exact legal entity holding your account, and several UK banks use different codes across brands and legacy books. A generator that picks the wrong one produces a string that passes every automated check and belongs to nobody.
The failure mode is the worst one available: the payment does not bounce, it goes somewhere. Ask your bank, read it out of your app, or take it from a statement. All three take less time than fixing a misdirected payment.
What to Give Someone Paying You
Inside Europe, the IBAN alone is usually enough for a euro payment. From outside Europe, give the IBAN and the BIC together, plus your account name exactly as the bank holds it. Someone in the United States will ask for a routing number because that is the box on their form, and our guide to what a US form means by a UK routing number covers what to put in each field.
For a full checklist of what to collect before sending or receiving anything, our guide to the bank details needed for a money transfer runs through every payment type and what each one requires.
What Is a SWIFT Code, and What Is a BIC Code?
The same thing under two names. A BIC is a Business Identifier Code defined by ISO 9362, and it is commonly called a SWIFT code because Swift is the ISO registration authority that issues them. It is 8 characters, or 11 with an optional branch identifier, and it identifies the institution rather than the account.
Why It Has Two Names
ISO 9362 is a universal identifier standard for financial and non-financial institutions, and the code it defines is a BIC. Swift issues those codes in its role as registration authority, maintains the BIC Directory, and runs the messaging network banks use to send payment instructions. The network's name attached itself to the code.
So if a form asks for a SWIFT code and another asks for a BIC code, they want the identical string. There is no version of one that is not the other, and any difference in what is being asked for is a difference in whether the branch digits are wanted.
What the 8 or 11 Characters Mean
Characters 1 to 4 are the business party prefix, usually a short form of the bank name. Characters 5 and 6 are the ISO country code. Characters 7 and 8 are the location suffix identifying the city or office. The optional final 3 characters identify a specific branch, department, service or unit of the same institution.
Position | What it is | Characters | Example meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
1 to 4 | Business party prefix | Alphanumeric | The bank's short identifier |
5 to 6 | Country code | Letters only | GB, DE, ES, US |
7 to 8 | Location suffix | Alphanumeric | The city or head office |
9 to 11 | Branch identifier | Optional | A specific branch or unit |
An 8 character code points at the institution's head office and is accepted for most payments. An 11 character code adds a branch. If you only have the 8 character version and a form wants 11, appending XXX is the usual convention, though checking with the bank is safer than assuming.
Connected and Non-Connected BICs
Swift distinguishes two kinds. A connected BIC belongs to an institution with access to the Swift network. A non-connected BIC exists for reference only, identifying an institution that does not itself exchange Swift messages. Both are real codes and only one of them can receive a Swift payment directly.
This is the usually invisible reason a payment sometimes has to travel through a correspondent bank. If the destination institution is not connected, another bank receives the message on its behalf, and that intermediary is often where an unexplained deduction comes from.
The Codes Are Free, the Route Is Where the Money Goes
Every code on this page costs nothing. What costs money is a payment travelling through the correspondent network with a margin on the rate at one end and a deduction in the middle.
- Local account details instead: hold real details in the currency being sent, so the payer makes a domestic payment and no correspondent is involved.
- Mid-market exchange rate: the rate on Google when currency changes, with the fee shown as its own line.
- Nothing deducted in transit: the amount sent is the amount that arrives.
- Your UK details as well: sort code, account number and IBAN, so British payers carry on as normal.
IBAN and SWIFT Code: Which One Does a Payment Need?
The IBAN identifies the account and the BIC identifies the bank. A euro payment inside SEPA usually needs the IBAN alone, because the system derives the bank from it. Outside Europe, or wherever a form asks, supply both. Sending an IBAN and SWIFT code together is never wrong.
Inside Europe, the IBAN Usually Does It Alone
SEPA covers 41 European countries and standardises euro credit transfers and direct debits across all of them. Within it, a euro payment is routed from the IBAN, and most banks no longer ask for a BIC at all for a SEPA transfer. If your bank's form still has a BIC field, filling it in causes no harm.
For holding euros as a UK resident, our guide to opening a euro account in the UK covers the options and what each one charges.
Outside Europe, Supply Both
A payment from the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan or most of Asia travels over the Swift network, and the instruction needs the BIC to know which institution it is addressed to. The IBAN then identifies the account inside that institution. Leaving the BIC out of a non-SEPA payment is the commonest cause of a form refusing to submit.
How long that payment then takes depends on the route rather than the codes, and our guide to how long a wire transfer takes sets out the realistic timings, with the mechanics in how international money transfer works.
The Countries With No IBAN at All
The United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have never adopted IBAN. Payments to those countries use the domestic identifier instead: a routing number and account number in the US, an institution and transit number in Canada, a BSB in Australia. The BIC still applies, because the bank still has to be identified.
This trips people up in both directions. Someone in Britain asked for an IBAN by an American bank is being asked for something that does not exist on their side, and an American asked for an IBAN by a British payee has no equivalent to give. Each side needs the other's local format, not its own.
The Payment That Needs Neither Code
An IBAN and a BIC exist so a payment can cross a border. A payment that never crosses one needs neither, which is the cheapest version of the whole arrangement.
- Local details in the sender's country: the payer makes a domestic transfer at home, so no Swift message and no correspondent bank.
- Your UK details for British payers: sort code, account number and IBAN, exactly as now.
- Convert on your own timing: hold the currency and change it when you choose, at the mid-market rate.
- One stated fee: shown before you confirm, instead of a margin inside the rate.
The Check Digits, and Why a Wrong IBAN Usually Bounces
The two digits after the country code are calculated from everything else in the string using MOD-97-10, specified in ISO/IEC 7064. Change any character and the sum stops working, so a mistyped IBAN is normally rejected before a payment is attempted. That validation at source is the reason the standard exists.
What MOD-97-10 Actually Catches
Single mistyped characters, transposed pairs, and most accidental deletions. The check is arithmetic on the whole string, so almost any corruption produces a number that fails. Payment software runs it locally, before anything is sent, which is why a bad IBAN usually produces an error message rather than a lost payment.
This is a genuine advantage over domestic identifiers. A sort code and account number carry no equivalent built-in check, which is part of why the UK needed a separate industry directory and, later, a name checking service on top.
The Invoice Fraud That Check Digits Cannot Stop
The most common way money goes to the wrong IBAN is not a typo. It is an email that looks like a supplier, a landlord or a solicitor, telling you the bank details have changed. The IBAN in it is perfectly valid, because the person who sent it owns the account.
No arithmetic check protects against that, and no payment system will query it. The only defence is confirming a change of details by ringing a number you already held, never one printed in the message telling you about the change.
The Case Validation Cannot Catch
An IBAN that belongs to somebody else. If the string is well formed it passes every check, because the arithmetic has no opinion about whose account it is. That is the failure worth being careful about, and it is the reason to take details from an invoice or the person directly rather than from an email you were not expecting.
If a payment does go to the wrong place, our guide to money sent to the wrong account sets out the recovery process and how quickly you need to move.
IBAN Discrimination, and Your Right to Use Yours
Refusing a valid IBAN from another EU Member State for euro credit transfers or direct debits is unlawful. It is prohibited under Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 together with the amending Regulation (EC) No 924/2009, and the European Commission calls the practice IBAN discrimination.
What the Rule Requires
A payee has to accept a valid SEPA IBAN regardless of which Member State issued it. That means an employer, a landlord, a utility or a subscription service cannot insist on a domestic IBAN for a euro payment simply because the country code is different from theirs.
In practice refusals still happen, usually because a form or a payroll system was built to expect one country's format rather than out of any deliberate policy. That makes it worth raising rather than accepting, because it is often fixable at the other end.
What to Do if a Company Refuses
Say plainly that the refusal is prohibited under Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 and ask them to check with their payments team, because most front line staff have never heard of the rule. If they will not move, you can complain to the national competent authority in the country where it happened and report it to the European Commission through its feedback form.
The Commission maintains a list of national competent authorities for exactly this purpose, and its reporting route exists because monitoring the scale of the problem is part of how it gets enforced.
What Neither Code Controls: The Cost
Correct codes decide whether money arrives. The exchange rate decides how much of it arrives, and that is charged whether or not the details were perfect. On a typical high street conversion the margin is several times the size of any fee shown on the transaction.
The Margin, in Money
On 5,000 pounds converted to dollars, a published bank conversion charge of about 2.2 percent is 110 pounds, against roughly 19 pounds at the mid-market exchange rate with a stated fee. Same IBAN, same SWIFT code, same account, and a difference of about 91 pounds on one transfer.
Our ranking of the best UK banks for international transfers prices the high street on this properly, and international wire transfer fees covers the whole cost stack including the deductions taken in the middle.
The Deductions You Never See
When a payment travels through a correspondent bank, that bank can take a fee from the payment itself rather than billing anyone. The recipient sees an amount smaller than the one sent and there is no line item explaining the difference. This is why a payment can be quoted as costing nothing and still arrive short.
Holding local account details in the currency being sent removes the correspondent entirely, because the payer is then making a domestic payment in their own country. Our guide to receiving money from abroad covers how to set that up, and transferring money to an international bank account covers the sending side.
Local Details in Every Currency You Deal With
The cheapest international payment is the one that never becomes an international payment. Local details on both sides turn a wire into two domestic transfers.
- A UK IBAN, sort code and account number: so British and European payers pay you the ordinary way.
- US, euro and other local details: so dollars and euros arrive domestically instead of over the correspondent network.
- Mid-market rate when you convert: with the fee shown as its own line rather than folded into the rate.
- Nothing deducted in transit: no intermediary taking a cut you cannot see.
- Opens on a passport: no proof of address required in many cases.
What a Multi-Currency Account Cannot Do
It gives you real account details in several currencies, and it is not a bank. No overdraft, no mortgage, no cash deposits, no branch, and the balance is safeguarded rather than covered by a deposit compensation scheme. That is a different promise from deposit insurance and it is worth understanding before moving savings.
Safeguarded, Not Insured
Safeguarded money is held separately from the firm's own funds, in cash at major banks and in mainly government bonds, so it sits outside the estate if the firm fails. There is no upper limit on that protection, and there is also no scheme paying you automatically within a set number of days. Our guide comparing deposit protection and how safeguarding differs sets out what each promises.
The practical division most people land on is a bank for money that is sitting and a currency account for money that is moving. Neither does the other job well, and trying to make one cover both is where the trouble starts.
The Euro IBAN Is Not Always Local
Multi-currency providers issue euro details on an IBAN from the country where their European entity is licensed, which is often not the country you live in. Under the SEPA rules above that has to be accepted for euro payments, and occasionally a payroll system or a utility form refuses it anyway.
When that happens the answer is the regulation rather than a shrug, and the fallback is having a domestic account for the handful of counterparties that will not budge. It is a real limitation and a narrow one.
The Bottom Line
An IBAN identifies the account and a SWIFT code identifies the bank. In Europe the IBAN alone usually suffices, outside Europe supply both, and in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand there is no IBAN to supply at all. Get yours from your bank rather than from a generator.
Three Things Worth Remembering
A UK IBAN contains your sort code and account number, so there is nothing new to memorise. A BIC and a SWIFT code are the same string under two names. And the check digits mean a mistyped IBAN almost always bounces, while a well formed IBAN belonging to the wrong person passes every test there is.
The last one is the only genuinely dangerous case, and the defence is where you got the details from rather than how carefully you checked them.
One Account, Every Set of Details You Need
The end state most people want from all of this is simple: be payable in each currency you deal with, without memorising a new code every time somebody asks.
- UK sort code, account number and IBAN: for British and European payers.
- US routing and account number: for American payers, who have no IBAN to use.
- Euro, and other currencies as you need them: each with the local format that country expects.
- Mid-market rate when converting: with a stated fee rather than a margin inside the rate.
- Savings stay at a bank: safeguarding is not deposit insurance, so long term balances belong under a banking licence.
And the Part That Actually Costs You
Not the codes. The exchange rate and whatever a correspondent bank takes in the middle, neither of which appears as a fee and both of which are charged on a payment with perfect details. Fix the details once and then spend the attention on the route.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an IBAN?
An IBAN is an International Bank Account Number, a single string that identifies one specific bank account for cross-border payments. It starts with a two letter country code, then two check digits, then the domestic account details that country already uses. The whole point is automation: a payment system can read the country, validate the string and route the money without a human interpreting local formats.
What is an IBAN number in the UK and how long is it?
A UK IBAN is 22 characters. The structure is GB, two check digits, a four letter bank code, your six digit sort code and your eight digit account number. Nothing new is generated, so an IBAN number in the UK is just your existing sort code and account number wrapped in an international format. That is why your bank can produce it instantly without asking you for anything.
How do I find my IBAN?
Your banking app is the fastest route, usually under account details or a heading like international payments. It also appears on statements, in online banking, and your bank will confirm it by phone. If you are wondering how to find your IBAN without any of those, ask your bank rather than using a generator, because a construction that looks right is not the same as the one on your account.
What is a SWIFT code and what is a BIC code?
They are the same thing under two names. A BIC is a Business Identifier Code defined by ISO 9362, and people call it a SWIFT code because Swift is the ISO registration authority that issues them and runs the network that uses them. It is 8 characters, with an optional 3 character branch identifier making 11, and it identifies the institution rather than the account.
What does each part of a SWIFT code mean?
Characters 1 to 4 are the business party prefix, usually a recognisable short form of the bank's name. Characters 5 and 6 are the ISO country code. Characters 7 and 8 are the location suffix. The optional last three identify a specific branch, department or unit within the same institution. So a BIC code reads as bank, country, location, and then branch if one is specified.
Do I need both an IBAN and a SWIFT code?
Often, though less than you used to. The IBAN identifies the account and the BIC identifies the bank holding it, and many payment systems can now derive the bank from the IBAN alone, which is why SEPA payments inside Europe usually need only the IBAN. Outside Europe, or when a form asks for it, supply both. Sending an IBAN and SWIFT code together is never wrong, and sending only one sometimes is.
What happens if I get an IBAN wrong?
Usually nothing, because it fails validation before the payment goes anywhere. IBAN check digits are calculated using MOD-97-10 under ISO/IEC 7064, so a mistyped character almost always produces a string that fails the sum and gets rejected at source. The dangerous case is an IBAN that is structurally valid but belongs to somebody else, which validation cannot catch because the string is perfectly well formed.
Does every country use IBANs?
No. IBAN is an ISO standard that each country adopts by registering its own national format, and only national standards bodies or central banks can request a registration. Europe uses it universally, and a long list of countries beyond Europe have adopted it. The United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have not, which is why payments there use a routing number, a BSB or a local equivalent plus a SWIFT code.
Can a company refuse to accept my IBAN because it is from another country?
Not lawfully within the SEPA area. IBAN discrimination, meaning a refusal to accept a valid IBAN from another EU Member State for euro credit transfers or direct debits, is prohibited under Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 and the amending Regulation (EC) No 924/2009. If it happens you can complain to the national competent authority where it occurred and report it to the European Commission.
Does having the right IBAN and SWIFT code make the payment cheaper?
No, and this is the part people get backwards. Correct details decide whether the money arrives. What it costs is decided by the exchange rate applied to the conversion and by any fees correspondent banks deduct as the payment passes through. A perfectly formatted IBAN attached to a bank transfer with a 3 percent margin is still an expensive payment.
Sources
Every standard, structure and rule here comes from the body that publishes it. Checked in September 2026.
- Swift, International Bank Account Number and the ISO 13616 registry
- Swift, Business Identifier Code and the ISO 9362 standard
- Swift PMPG, white paper on the use of IBAN in commercial payments
- European Commission, IBAN discrimination and how to report it
- European Central Bank, the Single Euro Payments Area
- Pay.UK, Extended Industry Sort Code Directory
Mohammad Humaid
Verified AuthorMo is the founder of MoneyTransferStore. As an expat who has experienced the challenges of sending money across borders himself, he set out to help others like him avoid hidden fees and unfair exchange rates on international transfers. With a background spanning fintech, payments, and Web3, Mo brings years of practical experience to building a platform focused on transparency and trust.
