SWIFT & International
BIC Standard (ISO 9362)
ISO 9362 is the international standard that defines the structure of Business Identifier Codes (BICs), commonly known as SWIFT codes. Published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and managed by SWIFT as the registration authority, it provides a universal method for identifying financial and non-financial institutions in automated messaging.
The standard specifies an 8- or 11-character alphanumeric code in the format BBBBCCLLBBB, where BBBB is the institution code, CC is the ISO 3166-1 country code, LL is the location code, and the optional three-character suffix identifies a specific branch. An 8-character BIC (with no branch suffix or ending in XXX) refers to the institution's head office. You can look up any BIC using BankCheck.
ISO 9362 ensures that every financial institution has a globally unique identifier, eliminating ambiguity in payment routing. Compliance with the standard is required for SWIFT network participation and is referenced by other standards including IBAN (ISO 13616) and payment message formats like ISO 20022.
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