The parts

SWIFT's BIC policy describes an 8-character code as a business party identifier: a 4-character business party prefix, a 2-letter country code and a 2-character business party suffix. An optional 3-character branch identifier extends it to 11 characters (SWIFT).

Position	Part	Allowed characters
1 to 4	Business party prefix (the institution)	Letters
5 to 6	Country code (ISO 3166-1)	Letters
7 to 8	Business party suffix (we call it the location in the checker)	Letters or digits
9 to 11	Branch identifier, optional	Letters or digits

The allowed characters follow SWIFT's FIN format, written as 4!a 2!a 2!c [3!c] in the policy: letters for the first six characters, letters or digits after that (SWIFT). The policy uses the word "suffix", not "location code". Many banks and guides say location; both mean positions 7 and 8.

What a branch identifier means

According to the policy, a branch identifier denotes an organisational unit of the business party in the same country. It generally cannot identify a separate legal entity or a third party (SWIFT).

Lower case

The format allows capital letters. The checker accepts lower case and spaces when you paste, and shows the result in capitals.

Codes of real banks

We do not copy codes from directories. For the big US banks we list only the codes each bank publishes itself, with a link to the page: see US bank SWIFT codes. For any other bank, see where to look a code up.