Your business needs a BIC code to use international banking services. The BIC code is a unique identifier for each bank and consists of 8 or 11 characters. Here is some useful information about the BIC code.
What is a BIC? Definition of the term
BIC stands for Bank Identifier Code. It is a unique 8-11 character number assigned to every bank in the world, used to identify a particular bank in international transactions. BIC is also known as the SWIFT code.
The concept of BIC is particularly important in the context of international fund transfers, because each bank has a unique BIC number, which allows you to safely and quickly send money from one bank to another. The BIC number consists of letters and numbers, and its full structure is as follows:
XXYYYYNNNNNN where:
XX is the two-letter country code, e.g. PL for Poland, US for the United States, etc.
YYYYY is the 5-digit bank code, e.g. 00000 for PKO BP SA, 11000 for mBank SA, etc.
NNNNNN is the 6-digit bank branch number, e.g. 012345 for the PKO BP branch in Warsaw, 098765 for the mBank branch in Krakow, etc.
Considering the above definition, it can be said that BIC is a unique identifier of a bank, which allows you to quickly and safely send funds from one bank to another around the world.
Uses of BIC
BIC is also used by companies to send invoices and other documents. The BIC can be found on any company’s website and in company records. BIC is a very useful tool, as it allows easy and quick comparison of data about companies and their transactions.
BIC – sample codes of Polish banks
It is worth memorizing sample BIC codes of banks to make sure that you enter them correctly when making transfers. The table below shows the BIC codes of the most popular banks in Poland:
Bank Code – BIC
Alior Bank – AIRBPOLPWXXX
mBank – BREXPLPWMBK
Millennium – BIGBPLPW
PKO Bank Polski – PKOPPLPW
Getin Bank – GBGCPLPKXXX
ING Bank Śląski – INGBPLPWXXX
Until recently, BIC codes were known only to specialists in the banking industry. However, for several years now, due to the growing popularity of e-banking services, such as transfers24 or BLIK, they have become increasingly common. So it’s worth getting to know sample BIC codes of Polish banks to make sure you enter them correctly when making a transfer.
