IBAN format by country

How to read an IBAN

Every IBAN has the same four parts:

1. A two-letter country code, such as GB for the United Kingdom or DE for Germany.
2. Two check digits, worked out from the rest of the IBAN so that most typing mistakes are caught.
3. A bank code, and in some countries a branch code. In a UK IBAN, the bank code is four letters and the branch is your sort code.
4. The account number, in the country’s own format.

Everything after the check digits is called the BBAN, the basic bank account number. Its length and layout are fixed for each country, which is how a checker can tell you that “GB IBANs have 22 characters; this has 21”.

IBANs are often printed in groups of four to make them easier to read, like GB82 WEST 1234 5698 7654 32. The spaces aren’t part of the IBAN. When you type one into a banking app, leave them out if the app asks you to.

What the layouts mean

The registry describes each layout in a short code. In the table, we’ve kept just the length and an example, but the rules behind them are simple: some positions must be digits, some must be capital letters, and some can be either. For example, a UK IBAN is the country code and check digits, then 4 letters for the bank, then 14 digits for the sort code and account number.

If one character is in the wrong place, such as a letter where a digit should be, the IBAN can’t be right even before the check digits are tested.

IBAN length and example by country

Countries that don’t use IBANs

Many countries don’t use IBANs, including the United States, Canada, Australia, China and India. Payments to those countries usually need the bank’s SWIFT code (BIC) with a local account number, and sometimes a routing or branch code. If someone gives you an “IBAN” from a country that isn’t in the table above, ask them for the account details in the format their bank uses.