IBAN

Your own IBAN can be found on your paper statement or on your online statement.

They're a simple way to identify your account and bank details, enabling you to speed up the process of sending or receiving cross-border payments.

You should print them on your invoices for clients outside the UK. You should also use them when you're instructing a foreign bank to make payments to your account. You can also use your IBAN and BIC for currency payments within the UK. However, for UK payments in sterling, you should continue to use your sort code and account number.

Yes.

If you want to make a payment to the EU, EEA (including Switzerland) or any of the other countries that have adopted the IBAN, you must use the beneficiary's IBAN and BIC. For SEPA payments, only IBAN is required rather than BIC and IBAN.

If you want to receive payment from businesses within the EU, EEA (including Switzerland) or any of the other countries that have adopted the IBAN, then you must print your IBAN and BIC on your invoices.

If you need to make a payment to the EU, EEA (including Switzerland) or any of the other countries that have adopted the IBAN, you must use the beneficiary's IBAN and BIC. For SEPA payments, only IBAN is required rather than BIC and IBAN.

By law, the company you're paying should provide this information - they can find this on their statements. The beneficiary's bank can reject your payment if you don't use an IBAN and BIC.

If the company hasn't provided their IBAN and BIC, you should ask for these details. You could also tell the beneficiary company that payment may be delayed or subject to additional charges if they fail to provide this information.

Most of the time you don't have to include IBAN and BIC information on UK invoices. However, if you're expecting to receive a currency payment from another UK bank account, you can use the IBAN and BIC.

It's important that you check the format of each IBAN before you send a payment. Our IBAN checker can verify the format of an IBAN from a member or joining country of the European Union, the European Economic Area, Switzerland and other countries that have adopted the IBAN.
Use the IBAN checker

An IBAN is always used in conjunction with a Bank Identifier Code, or BIC, except for SEPA payments, where only the IBAN is required.

The BIC is a standard identifier for banks internationally. It is issued by SWIFT and should be used on all international payments. A BIC consists of either 8 or 11 digits. 

Here is an example of the NatWest BIC:

NWBKGB2L (8 digits)

or:

NWBKGB2LXXX (11 digits)

• Find out more about BICs on the SWIFT website.