IBAN details
What is the purpose of an IBAN and BIC?
An IBAN or International Bank Account Number is your bank account number in a standard, internationally recognized format. Used with the Bank Identifier Code (BIC) it helps international payments to be processed automatically, making them faster and more secure. It also helps prevent payments being rejected, delayed in account posting processes or misapplied and for which you would likely incur further charges for.
Payments going out of your account – what’s needed?
You will need an International Bank Account Number (IBAN)
The IBAN is mandatory for Euro payments to accounts within the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) by SEPA Credit Transfer, for SWIFT payments to countries in the European Economic Area (EEA) and for SWIFT payments to certain other destinations as shown in additional information.
The IBAN can be found on the front of your statement.
Where it is mandatory, SWIFT payments and SEPA Credit Transfers will not be processed without a valid IBAN.
You can only make a SEPA Credit Transfer from a current account.
The IBAN consists of a:
- Country code – to identify the country the money is going to
- Check number – this is a 2-digit number calculated by the bank issuing the IBAN and is used to validate the IBAN
- Bank code – to identify the bank
- Sort code and account number – to identify the customer the money is going to
There should not be any spaces in between any of the letters or numbers in the IBAN.
The person you are sending the money to (the beneficiary) should provide you with their IBAN, which is available from their bank. For SWIFT payments the payment beneficiary should also be able to provide you with BIC details for their bank.
A Bank Identifier Code (BIC)
The Bank Identifier Code (BIC) lets us know what bank, country and branch the payment is going to. The BIC is a universal method of identifying financial institutions in order to send overseas payments.
SWIFT payments and SEPA Credit Transfers will not be processed without a valid BIC. You will not need to provide the BIC to us for SEPA Credit Transfers, Nationwide will derive it for you.
You can only make a SEPA Credit Transfer from a Nationwide FlexPlus , FlexDirect, FlexAccount, FlexBasic, FlexOne and Flex Student current accounts.
The BIC consists of eight or eleven characters comprised of the following:
- Bank code – 4 alphabetic characters
- Country code – 2 letters
- Location code – 2 alphanumeric characters, except zero
- Branch code – 3 alphanumeric characters
There should not be any spaces in between any of the letters or numbers in the BIC.
The beneficiary’s bank will be able to provide all the information needed so that your payment beneficiary receives the money you are sending from your account.
Payments coming into your account
Nationwide does not levy a transactional charge for receiving either SWIFT payments or SEPA Credit Transfers into your account from overseas.
If we receive a payment in a foreign currency, we will convert it into sterling using our standard inbound exchange rate before we apply it to your account.
To receive a payment from someone outside the UK you will need to provide the sender of the payment with the following details:
For SWIFT payments
You will need to provide the sender with your:
- name and address
- Bank Identifier Code (BIC), also called the SWIFT address
- SWIFT Intermediary Bank address
- International Bank Account Number (IBAN)*
- Account Roll Number (if you are receiving into your savings account)
Your BIC and IBAN can be found at the top or your statement
* If you have a passbook account, please quote the IBAN number as GB97NAIA07009333333334. The sender will also need to quote your full account number in the additional reference section on their payment instruction.
For SEPA Credit Transfers
You will need to provide the sender with your:
- name and address
- International Bank Account Number (IBAN)
Your IBAN can be found at the top or your statement
Note: SEPA Credit Transfers can only be received into Nationwide current accounts.
To access your statement online:
- Log in to the Internet Bank
- Select View accounts – tab located at the top of the page
- Select your FlexAccount – listed under current accounts
- Select Statement archive – from the View accounts menu on the left side of the page
- Select a statement date from those listed
What is a Bank Code?
A Bank Code is a unique identification code for a particular bank. These codes are used when transferring money between banks and also can be used to exchanging other messages between them.
The code can be divided into international bank codes such as SWIFT codes and local or specific country bank code. Examples of local bank code are BSB Number, Sort Code and Routing Number.
Local bank codes are managed by a central bank, a bank supervisory body or a Bankers Association in a country. The bank code is then assigned to all its licensed member banks or financial institutions. The code rules vary to a great extent between the countries.
Since the introduction of International Bank Account Numbers (IBAN), the countries which use IBAN, have mostly integrated their local bank code into the prefix of specifying IBAN account numbers.