What is S W I F T?

Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT)

Swift code is a standard format of Bank Identifier Codes (BIC) and it is unique identification code for a particular bank.

These codes are used when transferring money between banks, particularly for international wire transfers. Banks also used the codes for exchanging other messages between them.

The Swift code consists of8 or11 characters. When8-digits code is given, it refers to the primary office.

·         First4 characters - bank code (only letters)

·         Next2 characters - ISO3166-1 alpha-2 country code (only letters)

·         Next2 characters - location code (letters and digits) (passive participant will have "1" in the second character)

·         Last3 characters - branch code, optional ('XXX' for primary office) (letters and digits)