IBAN & SEPA
Basic Bank Account Number
A BBAN (Basic Bank Account Number) is the domestic portion of an IBAN. It contains all the information needed to identify an account within a single country, including the bank code, branch identifier, and account number. Each country defines its own BBAN structure, so the length and composition vary by jurisdiction.
When an IBAN is constructed, the BBAN follows directly after the two-letter country code and two check digits. For example, in the German IBAN DE89 3704 0044 0532 0130 00, the BBAN is 370400440532013000 — an eight-digit bank code followed by a ten-digit account number. In contrast, a British BBAN contains a four-digit sort code prefix and an eight-digit account number. The BBAN structure for each country is published in the SWIFT IBAN Registry.
Understanding the BBAN is essential for anyone converting domestic account details into an IBAN or extracting local bank information from one. If the BBAN portion is malformed, the entire IBAN will fail validation. You can validate any IBAN with BankCheck, and the breakdown will show the exact BBAN components for the country in question.
Back to all terms.