BIC / SWIFT Code Format Checker Widget

How it works

Spaces and hyphens are removed and letters upper-cased, then the length must be exactly 8 or 11. SWIFT, the ISO 9362 registration authority, describes the code as a 4-character business party prefix, a 2-letter ISO 3166 country code, a 2-character business party suffix (the location code) and an optional 3-character branch identifier. The country part is checked against the 248 ISO alpha-2 codes in the UN Statistics Division's M49 table plus TW and XK, so UK (not an ISO code - it is GB) and EL (Greece's VAT prefix, not its country code) are refused with a hint. A '0' as the 8th character marks a Test & Training address, which SWIFT's ISO 9362:2014 white paper says is not published in the BIC directory. A branch code of three X letters (ABCDBEB1XXX) denotes the primary office rather than a named branch, and a missing branch means the institution itself. Digits in the first four characters are allowed by ISO 9362 but flagged, because SWIFT has so far issued letters only. A 22-character entry starting with two letters and two digits is recognised as an IBAN.

Method

• Normalise: upper-case, remove spaces, hyphens and dots; length must be 8 or 11
• Characters 1-4: business party prefix, letters or digits (SWIFT issues letters only so far)
• Characters 5-6: ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code (UN M49 table + TW, XK)
• Characters 7-8: location code; character 8 = '0' -> Test & Training BIC
• Characters 9-11 (optional): branch identifier; XXX = primary office

Worked examples

A format check only. It does not confirm that a code is issued or which bank holds it - check with the receiving bank before sending money.

Limitations

• Format only: the code is not looked up in the SWIFT BIC directory, so issued, retired and never-issued codes that fit the pattern all pass.
• Country names come from the browser's built-in region names; the country list is a dated copy of the UN M49 ISO alpha-2 table plus TW and XK.
• The location code's second character carries other historical meanings that are not interpreted beyond the Test & Training '0'.

Where publishers use it

• A university's international fees page where overseas students check the BIC before a wire transfer
• An exporter's payment-instructions page showing how to read the bank's SWIFT code
• An accounts team cleaning a supplier list: paste 200 BICs and copy back the well-formed ones
• A remittance or travel-money blog explaining what each part of a SWIFT code means
• A developer's test-data page reminding testers that codes with 0 in position 8 are test addresses

Questions

Sources

1. Business Identifier Code (BIC) - SWIFT, ISO 9362 registration authority . 8-character code: business party prefix (4 alphanumeric), ISO 3166-1 country code (2 alphabetic), business party suffix (2 alphanumeric); optional 3-character branch identifier. Checked 2026-10-03.
2. ISO 9362:2014 - BIC Implementation (white paper) - SWIFT . Section 4.3: SWIFT has so far issued only alphabetic prefixes; 4.5: BICs with '0' in position 8 are Test & Training addresses not published in the BIC directory. Checked 2026-10-03.
3. Standard country or area codes for statistical use (M49) - United Nations Statistics Division . ISO alpha-2 code for each of 248 countries or areas, used as the country list. Checked 2026-10-03.

Cite or recommend this tool

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A2Z Tools BIC / SWIFT Code Format Checker
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BIC / SWIFT Code Format Checker by A2Z Tools - https://a2z.tools/embed/bic-swift-checker