SWIFT/BIC and IFSC Decoder

To move money between banks, the banks need to find each other. The Business Identifier Code, usually called the SWIFT code or BIC, is the standard address for that: an international code, defined in ISO 9362, that names a bank and the country and city where it operates. India has its own, shorter system for domestic transfers, the Indian Financial System Code, which points to an exact branch. This decoder checks a code of either kind and explains each of its parts.

Anatomy of a BIC

The first four characters are the institution code, letters chosen by the bank. The next two are the ISO 3166 country code. The next two are the location code, letters or digits for the city or region, and its second character sometimes carries meaning: a 0 means the code is a test BIC, used for connecting to testing networks, a 1 marks a passive participant on the SWIFT network, and a 2 is used for reverse billing. The last three characters, if present, identify a branch, and a branch code of three X letters stands for the head office. A BIC of eight characters therefore refers to the primary office.

A worked example

Press Sample to decode six codes. DEUTDEFF is a valid BIC8: institution DEUT, country DE (Germany), location FF, no branch, so the primary office. DEUTDEFF500 is the BIC11 form with the branch code 500. NEDSZAJ0 has country ZA (South Africa) and location J0, and the page notes that the 0 in the second position marks a test BIC. DEUTZZFF is rejected because ZZ is not an ISO 3166 country code. Two of the codes are IFSC: SBIN0125620, where SBIN is State Bank of India, the fifth character is the reserved 0 and the branch is 125620, and HDFC0000001, where HDFC is HDFC Bank and the branch is 000001.

Indian IFSC

An IFSC is exactly 11 characters. The first four letters are the bank, the fifth character is zero and is reserved for future use, and the last six characters, digits or letters, identify the branch. The Reserve Bank of India publishes the master list. Domestic systems such as NEFT, RTGS and IMPS use it to route payments to a branch. The page checks the shape and the zero, and names a few dozen of the common bank prefixes. It does not have the branch list, which runs to tens of thousands of entries and changes often.

How to use the result

Before entering a code in a payment form, paste it here and compare the country and location with what the bank told you. A code that decodes to another country than expected is a warning sign for fraud or a copy mistake. When a supplier gives a BIC8, you can usually leave it as it is. If a payment system demands 11 characters, append three X letters.

Limits

The page checks structure and country. It has no directory of banks or branches, so it cannot say whether a code is active or which branch an IFSC identifies. For that use the bank, the SWIFT directory or the central bank’s master list. Nothing is sent over the network.

Related tools

• IBAN Validator checks the account number that goes with a BIC.
• ABA Routing Number Validator covers the US system.
• GSTIN Validator is useful when you handle Indian business details.
• Luhn Validator checks card numbers.