When making an international bank transfer or transaction, it is necessary to know the IBAN and SWIFT numbers, also known as BIC. What do they mean, why are they necessary, and how can you find or calculate them? Today, we answer these questions to help you understand financial terminology in an easy way.
What is IBAN?
IBAN is the acronym for International Bank Account Number . This may be the code you are most familiar with, as it became mandatory in February 2014, with the entry into force of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). It allows an account number to be identified and validated internationally. Thus, banks in the 36 countries that make up the SEPA area can make an international transfer as if it were a national one, as the process is automated and greatly simplified.
The IBAN consists of four initial characters, followed bitcoin data by the 20 characters of your account number. They are distributed as follows:
The first two digits are letters and identify the country.
The next two are check digits, which allow you to verify the accuracy of the IBAN.
Account number
In the case of the Spanish IBAN, it consists of 24 digits and, according to the above, is formed as follows:
The first two letters are ES, which is the code for Spain, according to ISO standards.
The two check digits.
The full CCC of the corresponding bank account.
What is SWIFT or BIC?
As we have already mentioned, the IBAN speeds up transfers within the European Union and the SEPA zone. However, to make a transfer outside the EU, the IBAN is not enough. You also need the SWIFT or BIC code, Bank Identification Code.
SWIFT is the acronym for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications . A cooperative founded in 1973, based in Belgium and owned by financial institutions themselves. This code is used to identify the beneficiary bank in an international transfer. It is an alphanumeric code made up of between 8 and 11 characters.
If the code has eight characters, it is divided between the bank, country and city information. For example, the SWIFT code for Banco Cooperativo Español is BCOEESMM. BCOE is the bank; ES is the country, Spain; and MM is the city, Madrid.
When this code has eleven characters, in addition to the previous ones, the branch information is included in the last three characters. Thus, all the entities that form part of the Caja Rural Group are represented through the code BCOEESMM, followed by the last three positions of their number in the Spanish banking system. This is a system that guarantees the security of operations.