What Every Bank Transfer Needs

Every bank transfer needs three things: the name of the account holder as it is on the account, the account number and the bank. A wrong digit can send money to the wrong account, so read the details back to the person you are paying.

Local Bank Transfers

A transfer between two banks in the same country uses that country's own system. In many countries it also needs a local code that says which bank or branch holds the account. The codes have different names: a sort code in the UK, a routing number in the US, a BSB in Australia, an IFSC in India, a CLABE in Mexico and a BRSTN in the Philippines. Some countries have payment systems that need no bank code at all, such as FAST and PayNow in Singapore, FPS in Hong Kong and Pix in Brazil. The table further down lists the 19 countries whose local codes we checked.

International Bank Transfers

A payment from another country goes over the international network, so it needs to name the bank as well as the account. That is the job of the SWIFT/BIC code, which has 8 or 11 characters. Some senders and payment services also ask for the bank's address. In countries that use IBANs, the IBAN replaces the plain account number, because it contains the domestic bank and account numbers.

Receiving and Sending

The details are the same in both directions, and only who has to find them changes. When you receive money, you give the payer your details, and you can find them in your banking app, on a statement or by asking the bank. When you send money, you ask the recipient for their details, and the bank you send from may ask for more. This page lists what the receiving bank needs to identify the account.

Local Bank Codes We Checked

Which Countries Use IBANs

The SWIFT IBAN Registry lists 89 countries. 87 of the countries in this list have an IBAN of their own, and 3 territories use the IBAN of another country, for example the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands use the UK's. Countries that are not in the registry, such as the United States, Nigeria, India, China and Japan, have no IBAN, and their accounts are identified by an account number and, in some countries, a local code. Having an IBAN does not make a country a SEPA member, and 44 of the countries and territories in the list are in SEPA. Check an IBAN on our IBAN validator.

Tips

• Copy the details from the bank's own app or statement instead of retyping them, and check the name and the digits before you send.
• Use the code your bank gives you. Some countries have more than one number for different payment types, such as ACH and wire routing numbers in the US.
• If the country shows no verified local code, ask your bank what a local transfer needs.
• Ask the receiving bank for its incoming international payment instructions if you are not sure.

What This Page Uses

The IBAN structures come from the SWIFT IBAN Registry, release 101, as published in open-source libraries and cross-checked against a second one. Territories that use another country's IBAN, and SEPA membership, come from the European Payments Council's list of SEPA scheme countries and territories, version 8.0 of 24 December 2025. The local bank codes are the ones on our own country pages, and each of those pages names its sources. The country names follow the World Bank style. We last checked on 20 September 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions