What Is an IBAN? Format, How to Check and Example

An IBAN number, short for International Bank Account Number, is a standard code of up to 34 letters and digits that identifies one bank account across borders. It starts with a two-letter country code and two check digits, then the local bank and account details, so a payment can be checked for typos before it leaves.

Around 90 countries and territories use IBANs, mostly in Europe and the Middle East. One shared layout lets any bank read the account details the same way. The format comes from an international standard, ISO 13616, and you will usually find your own IBAN on a bank statement or in your banking app.

Accounts held in India, the US, Canada, Australia and Singapore do not have an IBAN. Banks there identify an account by its account number plus a local bank or branch code, and add a SWIFT code when money comes from abroad. If a client asks you for an IBAN, those are the details you share instead.

An IBAN is the international version of a local account number. The IBAN full form is International Bank Account Number. In banking, the IBAN number meaning is simple: "one account, written so any bank abroad can read it". Some banks and payment forms call it an IBAN code, which means the same thing.

The standard is ISO 13616. In 2006, ISO named SWIFT, the network banks use to send payment messages, as the body that keeps the official list, the SWIFT IBAN Registry.

Why does this matter to you? A foreign bank has no way to know how long a German or French account number should be. The IBAN puts the country first and adds two check digits, so a wrong character is caught before the money moves.

The IBAN structure is the same in every country. You will always see two letters, then two digits, then the home-country account number, which can run to 30 characters.

• Country code - two letters from the international country list, such as GB for the United Kingdom or DE for Germany, which tell the bank which country rules apply.
• Check digits - two numbers worked out from the rest of the IBAN, which let a bank or a payment form confirm the number was typed correctly before money is sent.
• BBAN - the basic bank account number, meaning the domestic part that holds the bank code, sometimes a branch code, and the account number itself.

That gives a maximum of 34 characters (2 + 2 + 30), though no country uses the full length. On paper, an IBAN is printed in groups of four with spaces. In a payment form you type it as one string with no spaces.

What the BBAN holds, from bank code to account number

The BBAN is the number a bank uses at home, and its layout changes from country to country. It always identifies one account at one bank in one country, and in most countries the bank code comes first. Three common layouts:

• Germany - an 8-digit bank code, known locally as the Bankleitzahl, followed by a 10-digit account number, which makes 18 digits in all and a 22-character IBAN.
• France - a 5-digit bank code, a 5-digit branch code, an 11-character account number and a 2-digit key, for a French IBAN of 27 characters.
• United Kingdom - a 4-letter bank code, the 6-digit sort code and an 8-digit account number.

Because the bank code sits at a fixed position, a bank abroad can tell which bank holds the account straight from the IBAN, without asking you.

IBAN example with a UK number decoded one part at a time

In this IBAN number example, the UK number comes from the SWIFT IBAN Registry: GB29 NWBK 6016 1331 9268 19. It is a test number, not a real customer account, and each part of it does one job.

Add the parts up and you get 22 characters, the length of every UK IBAN. The 6-digit sort code is the same one UK customers use for payments at home, which is why a UK client already knows those digits from their own account.

No, India does not use IBAN, so there is no IBAN number in India. At home, an Indian account is identified by its account number plus an IFSC code, the 11-character code for the bank branch. When money comes from abroad, the sender's bank also needs your bank's SWIFT/BIC code.

What to give a foreign client instead of an IBAN

• Account holder name - your name or your company's registered name, spelt exactly as your bank holds it.
• Account number - the full number, typed without spaces, in the field where an IBAN would go.
• Bank name and branch address - many international payment forms ask for both.
• SWIFT/BIC code - your bank's SWIFT code of 8 or 11 characters.
• IFSC, if asked - some sending banks request it as an extra field.

Each Indian bank has its own SWIFT details. If you bank with HDFC, the HDFC Bank IBAN number guide shows which details HDFC customers share instead and where to find them.

If your account is in a country that uses IBAN, the number is already in your bank's records, though some forms label the field IBAN no. There are three places to find it.

• Bank statements - banks in IBAN countries usually print it near the top of a paper or PDF statement, beside the account number and the SWIFT/BIC code.
• Online banking portal or mobile app - open the account and look for a section such as "account details" or "share details", where the IBAN can usually be copied in one go.
• Customer support or a branch - if you still cannot find it, your bank can confirm it by phone, chat or at the counter once it has checked who you are.

If your account is in India, the US, Canada, Australia or Singapore, none of these steps will turn up an IBAN, because one was never issued. Share your account number and SWIFT/BIC code instead.

Account number from IBAN: which characters are the account

The account number sits at the end of the BBAN, so you can usually read it straight off the end of an IBAN. In the UK example, skip the country code, check digits, bank code and 6-digit sort code, and the last 8 digits, 31926819, are the account.

In Germany, the last 10 digits are the account, so DE89 3704 0044 0532 0130 00 holds account 0532013000 at bank code 37040044. Some countries break the pattern. In France and Norway, for example, a key or check digit follows the account.

Going the other way is harder. To find the IBAN number from account number details alone, you also need the bank code and the country layout, so ask your bank for the full IBAN.

Before you send money to an IBAN, or put your own on an invoice, a quick IBAN number check saves a returned payment. An IBAN checker confirms that the length matches the country and that the check digits add up.

A pass means the number is internally consistent, but it does not prove the account exists or belongs to the person on the invoice, so confirm the name with the payee too. If you want to know how to check IBAN number details by hand, the maths fits in four steps.

Check digits: how two numbers catch a mistyped IBAN

Each IBAN check digit pair comes from a calculation called mod-97, set out in ISO/IEC 7064 (MOD 97-10). Here it is on the UK example, GB29 NWBK 6016 1331 9268 19.

1. Move the first four characters, GB29, to the end, which gives you NWBK60161331926819GB29.
2. Swap every letter for a number, where A is 10 and Z is 35, so N is 23, W is 32, B is 11, K is 20 and G is 16.
3. Read the result, 2332112060161331926819161129, as one long whole number.
4. Divide it by 97. If the remainder is 1, the IBAN passes, and here the remainder is 1.

Change one digit, say the final 9 to an 8, and the remainder becomes 71, so the form rejects it. Swap the 8 and the 1 near the end, so the account reads 31926189 instead of 31926819, and the remainder is 63, also a fail. This IBAN checksum catches single-digit mistakes and most swapped digits, though no check-digit scheme catches every possible error.

An IBAN account number is not just your bank account number, though it includes it. Each code identifies something different, and only the IBAN points to one account in a layout any country can read. For the two codes people mix up most, read SWIFT vs IBAN.

If your client is in the US, their own bank details show a 9-digit routing number and an account number instead of an IBAN. That is why a US client may not recognise the IBAN field at all.

Around 90 countries and territories use IBAN. The SWIFT IBAN Registry, Release 103 from September 2026, lists 89 country entries, mostly in Europe and the Middle East, plus parts of the Caribbean and North Africa.

Counts can differ because some entries cover more than one place. The GB entry also covers the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey, while the FR entry covers French overseas territories. For every country and its layout, use the full list of IBAN countries.

IBAN length by country, with the shortest and longest

IBAN length depends on the country, so there is no single answer to how many digits are in an IBAN. The shortest in use is Norway at 15 characters, then Belgium at 16. Russia has the longest at 33, followed by Saint Lucia at 32, then Malta and Seychelles at 31.

No country uses the full 34 characters the standard allows. If an IBAN you were given is longer or shorter than its country's length, it has a typo, and you should ask the payee to resend it.

Which currencies have an IBAN, from SEPA euro to US dollars

An IBAN follows the country where the account is held, not the currency it holds. A euro account in Germany has one, a US dollar account in New York does not, and a dollar account held in an IBAN country can still carry one. Here is how that works for the currencies clients most often pay in.

For euro payments inside the EU, EU Regulation 260/2012 makes the IBAN mandatory for SEPA credit transfers. SEPA does not reach India, so a European client paying your Indian bank account directly uses an international SWIFT transfer instead. How the euro scheme itself works is covered under SEPA payments.

Indian accounts have no IBAN, so a client's form that insists on one can stall a payment. You may also see the term virtual IBAN, a number in IBAN format that routes incoming money to an account held elsewhere. Whatever details you share, the client's bank still needs the right ones for the currency they pay in.

Xflow receiving accounts give clients paying in USD, EUR, GBP or CAD local account details, so paying you works much like a domestic transfer for them. The money is paid out to your own Indian bank account. Clients paying in other currencies can still pay by SWIFT.

An IBAN is a country-coded account number of up to 34 characters that lets a bank abroad read your account details. Before you send money to one, check its length and check digits. Indian accounts have no IBAN, so share your account number, bank details and SWIFT/BIC code instead.