Anatomy of a SWIFT/BIC
A BIC is 8 or 11 characters: 4 letters for the bank, 2 letters for the country, 2 characters for the location, and an optional 3-character branch code. 'DEUTDEFF' identifies Deutsche Bank's primary office in Frankfurt, Germany.
Primary office vs branch
An 8-character BIC, or one ending in 'XXX', refers to the primary office. Any other 3-character suffix identifies a specific branch — important for routing to the right department for large institutions.
When you actually need one
SWIFT/BIC is required for international wires outside SEPA, and is still requested by many banks even within SEPA. For domestic transfers you usually only need the account number and a sort/routing code.
Bank Account Number Checker
Validate IBANs, SWIFT/BIC codes, US routing numbers, and country-specific bank account formats.
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