IBAN, or International Bank Account Number, is an international bank account number. It is used in the member countries of the European Union, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. IBAN is necessary for international transfers. Each country has its own unique IBAN format. The format is defined by the International Organization of Standards stating that the IBAN number consists of up to 34 alphanumeric characters.
What exactly is an IBAN number?
IBAN, short for International Bank Account Number, is an international bank account number. It was created to make international transfers easier and more efficient. IBAN is unique for each country and consists of several elements:
– country prefix (PL, DE, UK, etc.),
– digits identifying the bank and branch in the country,
– the number of the personal or business account.
In Poland, the IBAN number consists of 24 digits. The prefix PL means that it is the number of an account in a Polish bank, followed by two digits identifying the bank and three digits indicating the bank branch. The next 16 digits are our personal or business account number.
International transfers are being made more and more frequently, so it is worth remembering to provide the correct IBAN number when making them. Otherwise, the transfer may be delayed or even rejected by the banking system.
How to find your bank’s IBAN number?
If you want to check your bank’s IBAN number, you can do it in several ways. First, you can contact your bank directly and ask for this information. Or you can go to a bank branch and ask a customer service person about it. Another way is to search for the IBAN number on the Internet. You can, for example, look on Google or another Internet search engine. By typing “IBAN number of [bank name] bank” you should get results that will help you.
Remember that the IBAN number is unique for each bank account, so make sure you are looking for your account’s IBAN number and not someone else’s.
What is the IBAN number used for?
IBAN (International Bank Account Number) is a bank account number that is used for international transactions. IBAN consists of 26-34 numbers and letters that are assigned to a country. IBAN is essential for international transfers, as it avoids errors during data entry. In addition, the IBAN number allows faster settlement of transactions and helps identify the recipient’s bank account.
How to verify if the IBAN is correct?
The introduction of the new interbank settlement system forced banks to introduce a new account number – IBAN (International Bank Account Number). This is an international standard that allows easier and faster settlement of interbank transactions. IBAN consists of 26-34 digits and is unique for each bank and individual customer. It is also structured so that it is easy to check whether the number provided is correct.
To check the correctness of the IBAN number you should:
1. check the length of the number – it should consist of 26-34 digits.
2. find the country code – the first 2 digits are the ISO code of the country, e.g. PL for Poland, DE for Germany, etc.
3. check the check digits – the last 2 digits are check digits, which are used to verify the correctness of the whole number. To calculate them, download the appropriate algorithm from your bank or website (e.g. https://www.iban-bic.com/). Then you should enter the entire IBAN number without these last two digits and the “+” sign. As a result, we should get 2 numbers, which must be the same as these last two digits in the IBAN number we provided.
4. check the rest of the number – except for the first 4 digits and the last 2 digits, the entire remaining sequence should consist of only digits (0-9).
In summary, to verify the correctness of the IBAN number you should: check its length, verify the country code, calculate the check digits, check the rest of the number.
