IBAN and BIC are often asked for together, which makes them easy to confuse. They answer different questions: the IBAN says which account should receive the money, the BIC says which bank holds it.
The IBAN identifies an account
An IBAN such as DE89 3704 0044 0532 0130 00, a German one, points to one specific account. It starts with a country code and two check digits, followed by the national account number. It is defined by the ISO 13616 standard. What is an IBAN? covers it in detail.
The BIC identifies a bank
A BIC (Business Identifier Code, defined by ISO 9362) identifies a bank, and optionally one of its branches, in the international payment network. It is often called the SWIFT code, because SWIFT is the registration authority that issues BICs and runs the network that uses them. Some BICs exist only for reference and are not connected to that network.
A BIC has 8 or 11 characters. DEUTDEFF, the BIC of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, splits like this:
| Part | In the example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Party prefix | DEUT |
The institution (four characters) |
| Country code | DE |
Germany |
| Party suffix | FF |
Two characters, traditionally the location; here Frankfurt |
| Branch code (optional) | none | Three more characters for a branch; XXX or nothing means the head office |
Side by side
| IBAN | BIC | |
|---|---|---|
| Identifies | An account | A bank or branch |
| Standard | ISO 13616 | ISO 9362 |
| Length | 15 to 34 characters, depending on the country | 8 or 11 characters |
| Contains check digits | Yes, two (MOD-97) | No |
| Personal to you | Yes | No, the same for all customers of the bank or branch |
When you need both
Inside SEPA, the Single Euro Payments Area, the IBAN alone is enough for euro transfers and direct debits. EU rules stopped banks from asking customers for the BIC: for domestic payments from February 2014 and for cross-border payments from February 2016. Your bank finds the BIC from the IBAN on its own. IBAN and SEPA tells that story.
Outside SEPA, many international transfers still need both: the BIC routes the payment to the right bank, and the IBAN, where the destination country uses one, tells that bank which account to credit. Countries that do not use IBANs, such as the United States, combine the BIC with their own account and bank numbers; see countries that do not use IBAN.
Can you get the BIC from an IBAN?
Not by calculation. The bank code inside the BBAN often maps to one BIC, but the mapping lives in directories kept by banks and payment providers, not in the IBAN itself. That is also why a validator can check an IBAN's structure offline but needs a directory to confirm which bank it belongs to.
Sources
- ISO 9362:2022: the BIC standard.
- ISO 13616-1:2020: the IBAN standard.
- Regulation (EU) No 260/2012, Article 5: the end of the BIC requirement for payments in euro inside the EU.