SWIFT codes tell the payment where to look. They do not prove who owns the account.
A SWIFT code, commonly called a BIC, identifies a financial or non-financial institution in an international payment message. Check its structure here, then confirm the actual code with the recipient's bank.
Read the code before you copy it
The first four characters identify the business party. Characters five and six are the ISO country code. The next two identify the location. An optional final three identify a branch, department or service.
An 8-character BIC can be written as an 11-character code ending in XXX, but you should not add a branch ending by guesswork. Use the code the receiving bank publishes for the selected currency and payment type.
A BIC is not an account check
A code can match the ISO format while still being mistyped, retired, unrelated to the recipient or unsuitable for that payment route. Some registered BICs are not connected to SWIFT at all.
Online Money Transfer checks structure in your browser. The official SWIFT directory or the receiving bank is needed to identify the institution. Your bank or transfer provider must perform any account-name check.
What bank details does each country use?
Choose the country where the recipient's account is held, not their nationality or current location.
Format, institution and recipient are not the same thing
- 01Check the structure
Confirm the length, country characters and, for an IBAN, the MOD97 checksum.
- 02Identify the institution
Use SWIFT's official BIC search or the receiving bank's own payment instructions.
- 03Confirm the recipient
Reconfirm changed instructions using a phone number or contact route you already trust.
Where these rules come from
Country IBAN lengths are drawn from SWIFT's IBAN Registry, release 102, published in June 2026. BIC structure follows ISO 9362 and SWIFT's current data-standard guidance.