The Payment Industry Environment

IBANs in Europe

Many European banks already issue IBANs to their customers. IBANs were issued in the UK from April 2001 onwards, to customers who require them. If you have not been given one, and need one because you do business with Europe, contact your bank.

Banks began to cite the IBAN and the accompanying Bank Identification Code (BIC) on statements and related paperwork from July 2003 onwards.

For your European counter parties to obtain the most economic service when making cross-border payments, you should cite your IBAN+BIC on invoices.

When an invoice is received containing an IBAN+BIC, the IBAN should be quoted in the account number and the BIC in the BIC field on the payment instruction given to the paying bank.

Note that an IBAN in printed format (such as on an invoice) is likely to be prefaced by the word IBAN e.g. IBAN AT61 1904 3002 3457 3201. The word IBAN is NOT to be entered on any input to the bank.

If you wish to check non GB IBANs, the UN Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business have a tool allowing you to do so at www.tbg5-finance.org

Countries Issuing and Receiving IBANs

European IBANs map

 

Examples of European IBANs:

Austria AT611904300234573201
Belgium BE62510007547061
Denmark DK5000400440116243
Finland FI2112345600000785
France FR1420041010050500013M02606
Germany DE89370400440532013000
Gibraltar GI75NWBK000000007099453
Greece GR1601101250000000012300695
Iceland IS140159260076545510730339
Ireland IE29AIBK93115212345678
Italy IT40S0542811101000000123456
Luxembourg LU280019400644750000
Netherlands NL39RABO0300065264
Norway NO9386011117947
Poland PL60102010260000042270201111
Portugal PT50000201231234567890154
Spain ES0700120345030000067890
Sweden SE3550000000054910000003
Switzerland CH9300762011623852957

 

In March 2006, ISO amended the international country code standard, assigning the Crown Dependencies (Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man) codes, which could be used instead of GB. The amendment implied that IBANs (which include an ISO country code prefix) issued for accounts in the Crown Dependencies should no longer use the Great Britain prefix (GB), but a code specific to the individual Crown Dependency – JE for Jersey, GG for Guernsey and IM for the Isle of Man.

However, given that:

  • payments bound for accounts based in the Crown Dependencies are not cleared there
  • new IBANs would have to be issued for every account based in the Dependencies
  • there is likely to be confusion among customers used to the current system 
  • and any change might complicate payment initiation and reconciliation processes where the GB prefix is expected and recognised

Members of the payments industry have taken the decision to continue using the GB prefix for accounts based in the Crown Dependencies and routed via UK clearing. UK-based financial institutions, along with those located in Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man, should not therefore change their current practice and should continue to use the GB prefix for IBANs.  The use of IBANs for sterling and euro accounts has been compulsory since July 2003.

 

Latest News