The country characters describe the identified institution, which may be an overseas or intermediary branch.
PRIVATE FORMAT CHECK
Does this BIC look right for the country you are paying?
Paste the 8 or 11-character code. We will check its ISO 9362 structure and compare the country characters with the expected receiving-bank country. The entry stays in your browser.
Checked only in this browser. Nothing entered here is sent, logged or stored.
FORMAT→INSTITUTION→RECIPIENT→PAYMENT SAFETY
A PASSING RESULT
What the checker actually tests
- The cleaned code contains exactly 8 or 11 characters.
- The two country positions contain letters.
- The remaining positions use characters allowed by the current BIC structure.
- The country characters match the destination you selected, or a warning explains the mismatch.
A STEP STILL REMAINS
Find the institution record
SWIFT is the ISO registration authority for BICs. Its free public search provides limited, occasional access to a subset of the BIC Directory and uses a human-verification challenge.
Use the official search or the bank's own incoming-payment instructions. Do not rely on an unsourced code copied from a directory page.
Search the official SWIFT directory ↗COMMON FAILURES
Small errors that can send a payment into repair
Use the 8 or 11-character code published by the bank for that payment route. Do not invent a branch identifier.
The BIC identifies an institution. An IBAN identifies an account format in countries that use the IBAN standard.
SWIFT registers both connected and non-connected BICs. Syntax alone cannot tell you which one you have.
No copied BIC directory
This tool implements the published ISO 9362 structure. It does not scrape or republish SWIFT's directory. Institution and connection-status checks remain with SWIFT's official search, a licensed reference-data service or the receiving bank.