What are SWIFT, IBAN and BIC codes?
The Society for Worldwide Inter-bank Financial Telecommunication (“SWIFT”) operates a worldwide financial messaging network. Messages are securely and reliably exchanged between banks and other financial institutions. The majority of international inter-bank messages use the SWIFT network. As of April 2006 SWIFT linked almost 8000 financial institutions in 205 countries. The International Bank Account Number (IBAN) is a European initiative for identifying bank accounts across national borders within Europe. Bank Identification Code (BIC) is a universal method of identifying financial institutions in order to facilitate automated processing of telecommunication messages in banking and related financial environments.
