What is a SWIFT code?

SWIFT stands for the 'Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication,' an international cooperative organization established in 1973, now used by most banks in most countries worldwide. The use of SWIFT allows banks to provide secure, reliable, fast, standardized, and automated communication services for settlements, greatly improving the speed of bank transactions. Every bank that applies to join the SWIFT organization must create its own SWIFT address code according to SWIFT's unified principles. Once approved by the SWIFT organization, it becomes effective. The Bank Identifier Code (BIC) consists of 8 or 11 alphanumeric characters that can be automatically interpreted by computers and are used in SWIFT messages to clearly distinguish the different financial institutions involved in a financial transaction. Every member bank of the organization has its specific SWIFT code, known as the SWIFT Code. During a wire transfer, the sending bank uses the receiving bank's SWIFT Code to send the payment message, which allows the funds to be transferred to the recipient bank. This number acts like an identification number for each bank.