BIC Directory

Identifying financial institutions (ISO 9362)

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Overview


Key concepts:
  • The single ISO reference to bank identifiers
  • A "must have" for payment processing institutions
  • Updated monthly (online: daily)
  • Available on paper, as file feeds and for online consultation

The BIC Directory contains the reference list of Bank Identifier Codes (BICs) issued by SWIFT under the ISO 9362 standard. The BICs identify the financial institutions and their branches in the entire world. The BIC Directory is an indispensable source of information for message preparation and repair.

Content
The BIC Directory contains:

  • the name and address of the financial institutions
  • the institutions’ BIC and branch codes
  • the institutions’ participation in national and international payment services reachable through FIN
  • the institutions’ SWIFT user category
  • list of Business Entity Identifier (BEI) codes for corporates

Usage
Financial institutions, corporates and others use the BIC Directory to:

  • Validate the BIC
  • Look-up the BIC for an institution’s name and address
  • Look-up whether an institution is connected to SWIFT’s network
  • Look-up through which payment systems an institution can be reached
  • Look-up an institutions’s SWIFT user category