Chapter 26 - SWIFT and Related Banking Standards

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the SWIFT and other related banking standards. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) operates a secured worldwide financial messaging network between banks and other financial institutions. It is also a registration authority (RA) for the various ISO standards which include ISO 9362:1994 for Bank Identifier Codes, ISO 10383:2003 for codes for exchanges and market identification (MIC), and ISO 13616:2003 for IBAN (International Bank Account Number) Registry. Bank Identifier Codes (BIC) are sometimes called SWIFT-BIC, BIC code, SWIFT ID, or SWIFT code and they provide a unique identification code of a particular bank. These codes are used while transferring money between banks, particularly for international wire transfers, and also for the exchange of other messages between banks. The International Bank Account Number (IBAN) is an international standard used for identifying bank accounts across national borders, and it is defined by ISO-13616:2007 and maintained by SWIFT. The IBAN consists of an ISO-3166-1 alpha-2 country code, followed by two check digits and up to 30 alphanumeric characters for the domestic bank account number, called the Basic Bank Account Number (BBAN). Banks not having an IBAN probably use the current ISO-9362 Bank Identifier Code system with the BBAN.