Details needed to pay someone abroad: IBAN, BIC, routing numbers and payment purpose

Sending money abroad needs more detail than a payment at home. A UK bank transfer asks for a name, a sort code and an account number. An international payment asks for the recipient's name exactly as it appears on their account, their address, their IBAN or account number, and their bank's SWIFT or BIC code, or in some countries a different local code such as the American routing number¹. Some countries also require a reason for the payment before the money can move².

The reason for the extra detail is that the payment passes through more hands. A payment to another country is routed through the international banking network, and each bank in the chain needs enough information to pass the money on correctly. The details you give at the start are what every later bank relies on. Get one of them wrong and the payment can be delayed, returned, or sent to the wrong place, and correcting it can take weeks rather than minutes.

The good news is that the list of details is short and standard. Once you have sent money to someone once, their details are stored and you do not need to enter them again³. This page sets out each detail in turn: what it is, where to find it, which countries need it, and what to do if something goes wrong.

The details you need to send money abroad

Every international payment starts with the same core set of details about the person or business you are paying. Barclays lists them as the name of the person or business you are sending money to, as it is shown on their account, their address, their IBAN, and their bank's SWIFTBIC or ABA routing code¹. The ABA routing code is the American equivalent of a local bank identifier, covered later on this page.

HSBC describes the same list in slightly different words for payments into the UK: the full name and address of the beneficiary, their bank code (normally the BIC), their IBAN or account number, the country or region of their bank, and the amount of the payment⁸. The pattern is the same whichever direction the money travels: who the money is for, where their account is, which bank holds it, and how much is being sent.

The name matters more than people expect. Banks are asked to check that the name on a payment matches the name on the receiving account, so a nickname, a shortened name or a business trading name can cause a payment to be held or returned. Ask the recipient for their name exactly as it appears on their account, not as they are known to you.

A few practical points make the process easier. Age UK's guidance on online money transfers notes that once you have sent money to someone once, their details will be stored and you will not need to enter them next time². So the fiddly part of an international payment is usually the first one to a new recipient. It is also worth confirming details with the recipient directly rather than typing them from an old email, since accounts change and fraudsters sometimes intercept message threads to swap in their own details. The section on scams involving payments abroad covers this in more depth.

The amount and currency are part of the instruction too. HMRC, when asking for overseas payments, tells people to make all payments in sterling and warns that the bank may charge if any other currency is used⁹, which is a reminder that the currency you choose affects both the fees and the exchange rate. How the exchange rate is set, and how much of the cost of a transfer hides inside it, is covered in exchange rates on international payments.

IBAN: up to 34 letters and numbers that identify one account

An IBAN is an International Bank Account Number, which you can use when making or receiving international payments². It is an internationally agreed code made up of up to 34 letters and numbers⁴. It includes a country code, and a bank and account number in a standard format, helping to reduce errors in international payments⁵.

The important thing to understand is that an IBAN is not a new account. It is the recipient's existing account number, wrapped in a standard international format with a country code at the front and check digits that let a computer confirm the code has been typed correctly. In the UK, the IBAN contains your sort code and account number. Nothing about the account changes when it is written as an IBAN, and money sent to an IBAN arrives in the ordinary account behind it.

IBANs are standard across many countries, mostly in Europe and parts of the Middle East¹⁰. If you are paying someone in the eurozone, an IBAN is normally essential. Barclays requires an IBAN from the sender for a SEPA credit transfer, the standard euro payment route¹¹, and its SEPA payment instructions ask for the recipient's full name as shown on their account, their bank's address, and their IBAN³. The dedicated page on sending euros explains how SEPA payments work.

Barclays describes an IBAN as 15 to 33 characters long on its payment pages³, while the general standard allows up to 34 characters⁴. The difference is simply that different countries have different length IBANs: the standard sets a maximum, and each country fixes its own length within it. A UK IBAN is 22 characters; other countries are shorter or longer, which is why the forms give you room for up to 34.

Anyone who wants to transfer money internationally usually needs to use an IBAN and SWIFT or BIC code to do so, as Starling Bank's guide puts it¹². In practice that means: for a country in the IBAN system, ask the recipient for their IBAN and use it in place of their local account number. For a country outside the system, such as the United States, you use the local account details instead, covered later on this page.

SWIFT and BIC codes: how the bank is identified

A SWIFT code, sometimes called a SWIFTBIC or just a BIC, is a code that helps overseas banks identify which bank to send money to². Where the IBAN identifies the account, the SWIFT or BIC code identifies the bank itself, and it is used more broadly, often alongside a separate local account number in countries that do not use the IBAN system¹⁰.

A SWIFT code or BIC is 8 to 11 characters long and made of both letters and numbers, arranged in the pattern AAAABBCCDDD⁵. The parts are:

• Bank code: 4 letters identifying the bank⁵
• Country code: 2 letters representing the country where the bank is located, such as GB for the United Kingdom or AA for Australia⁵
• Location code: 2 characters, usually letters or numbers, representing the bank's head office⁵
• Branch code: 3 digits or letters identifying a unique branch of the bank, with XXX typically used to represent the head office⁵

Not every branch has its own code. Some banks use the same SWIFT code for all their branches, while others have unique codes for each one⁵. If the recipient's bank uses one code across the network, the branch code will read XXX. When in doubt, ask the recipient to confirm the code with their bank.

Finding a bank's SWIFT code is straightforward. You can check any paper or digital banking statements, call the provider or a local branch on the phone, or search for the code using a digital SWIFT or BIC search tool⁵. If an overseas bank is sending a payment to your UK account, it will need to know your bank's own SWIFT code, which your bank can confirm². A transfer service such as OFX states that it typically requires you to provide your recipient's SWIFT code along with their IBAN⁵, which reflects how the two codes work together: one finds the bank, the other finds the account within it.

You may be asked for a SWIFT code whenever you are sending or receiving money internationally between banks, particularly for international wire payments that use the SWIFT network and sometimes SEPA payments⁵. How the SWIFT network actually moves money between banks, and why that affects the cost and speed of a transfer, is explained in how international payments work and in Swift payments and wire transfers.

Local codes: routing numbers, IFSC, CNAPS and sort codes

Not every country uses the IBAN system, and many add a local code of their own on top of a SWIFT code. These local codes, sometimes called clearing codes or national clearing codes, identify the bank or branch within the recipient's country.

United States: routing numbers. In the US, a routing number is a nine-digit code that identifies a bank during transactions⁵. Unlike SWIFT or BIC codes, routing numbers are not used internationally⁵. So a payment to the US from the UK typically needs the recipient's account number, their bank's routing number, and a SWIFT code to carry the payment across the border. This answers a common question: you do not need an IBAN to send money to the United States, because the US does not use them.

India: IFSC codes. For payments to India, Barclays asks for the SWIFTBIC or IFSC code of the bank you are sending money to⁶. The IFSC is India's local bank branch code, and it is used alongside the recipient's account number.

China: CNAPS codes. For payments to China, Barclays asks for the SWIFTBIC or the CNAPS code for the bank you are sending money to, and notes that a CNAPS code is 12 digits long and starts with /CN³. China, like the US and India, is outside the IBAN system.

United Kingdom and Ireland: sort codes. A sort code is a six-digit number used in the UK to identify a specific bank and branch¹³. The first 2 digits refer to your bank, and the last 4 identify the specific branch where you opened your account⁵. It is used for payments within the UK and Ireland but not abroad⁵. When you receive money from abroad, your sort code is folded inside your IBAN, which is why overseas senders ask for the IBAN rather than the sort code.

Halifax and Lloyds both list a clearing code among the details needed when sending money to the rest of the world, along with the recipient's IBAN, the name and address of their bank, and the reason for the payment¹⁴. The clearing code is the generic name for whichever local code the destination country uses. If you are unsure which code a country needs, the recipient's bank can tell them, and the sending bank's international payments team can check before the payment leaves.

Payment purpose and the recipient's address

Some countries require more than bank details. Barclays asks for a detailed reason you are sending the payment, called the Purpose of Payment, as part of its international payment instructions⁶. Halifax and Lloyds likewise list the reason for your payment among the details needed for the rest of the world¹⁴. This is not nosiness on the bank's part: certain countries' regulations require the receiving bank to record why money is entering the country, and payments without a purpose can be held or returned.

The level of detail matters. A purpose such as "gift" or "invoice" may not be enough where a detailed reason is required; the payment form may want something fuller, such as "family maintenance payment to my mother" or "payment for invoice 12345". The recipient can often tell you what their country's banks expect, since they will have received payments before.

The recipient's address and their bank's address are part of the standard detail set. Barclays lists the recipient's address and their bank's address among the details needed for an international payment⁶, and AIB (NI) asks for the IBAN and BIC, which the receiver can obtain from their bank, and also the full address details of the receiver¹⁶. Handelsbanken's SWIFT payment instructions likewise ask for the IBAN or account number among the payee details¹⁷. The bank's address is usually needed only where a local clearing code is not, so forms ask for one or the other.

There are special cases worth knowing. Barclays states that you only send a payment in yen to a corporation, and not an individual⁶. So a payment in Japanese yen from Barclays cannot go to a person in Japan, however complete their details are. Payments to restricted-currency countries have their own rules more generally, covered in restricted currencies and country rules.

Fees tied to the route you use

The details you give determine the route a payment takes, and the route determines the cost. SWIFT payments are specially designed for international transfers and usually have a fee charged by your bank¹⁸. StepChange likewise notes that there is usually a fee for cross-border payments¹⁹. The fee is charged by the sending bank for making the international payment, and there may be further charges from banks in the chain, which the page on how international payments work explains.

The currency also affects the cost. If a payment needs converting, Barclays states it will use the latest Barclays reference exchange rate¹, and the difference between that rate and the mid-market rate is a cost in itself, on top of any fee. HMRC's guidance that overseas payments to it should be made in sterling, with a possible charge for using another currency⁹, shows how the currency choice can trigger extra charges even with a government body.

Barclays also states that for international transfers, unless you tell it otherwise, it will convert the payment into the currency of the country the payment is being sent to before sending it²⁰. Telling the bank otherwise, and choosing the currency deliberately, is one of the few decisions that changes the cost of a payment without changing the details. The comparison of banks and specialist providers sets out the cost differences between the routes.

When details are wrong

A payment sent with the wrong details is not simply lost, but recovering it depends on acting quickly. The first step is to contact the bank that sent the payment as soon as the mistake is found. The bank can ask the banks in the chain to trace the payment and attempt to recall it. This is not guaranteed to work: once money has reached a wrong account, the bank holding that account has to agree to return it, and there is no automatic right to force it back.

Your rights in this situation come from the Payment Services Regulations 2015, the UK law that governs payment services and sets out what providers must do when payments go wrong²¹. The Financial Conduct Authority's rulebook builds on those regulations with its own requirements on banks for payments²². Together they are the basis for any complaint about an international transfer, and the page on your rights under the Payment Services Regulations explains them in full.

Keep every record while this is happening. The Financial Ombudsman Service asks complainants about international money transfers for evidence including any messages used for the transfer, such as a SWIFT message or an MT103⁷. These messages are the paper trail that shows where the money went, and your bank can request them from the correspondent banks involved.

If the bank cannot or will not help, the next step is a formal complaint to the bank that sent the payment, and then, if the complaint is not resolved, the Financial Ombudsman Service, which can look at complaints about sending money abroad⁷. The ombudsman is free to use. The full process, including time limits and what the ombudsman can order, is covered in tracing, cancelling or recalling a payment sent abroad.

Giving your own details to receive money from abroad

Everything on this page applies in reverse when someone is sending money to you. To make sure the payment gets through, Barclays tells customers they need to give the sender their IBAN, their bank's SWIFTBIC code, their sort code and account number unless an IBAN is provided, their full name as shown on their account, their address, and the amount and currency²³. The same list appears in Barclays' guidance on receiving money: you will need to provide the sender with some details, including your IBAN and SWIFTBIC¹¹.

Your own IBAN is easy to find. Barclays says you can find your IBAN on your statement, or use the tool on its international payments page to generate the IBAN for any of your Barclays accounts², and its statement abbreviations page spells it out the same way: IBAN, International Bank Account Number, which you can find on your statement²⁴. Most banks now also display the IBAN in their app. If you cannot find it, telephone banking or a branch can confirm it.

For euro payments specifically, the requirement is narrower: if you want to receive a SEPA credit transfer, you will need to provide the sender with an IBAN¹¹. The page on receiving a payment from abroad covers the fees and delays on the receiving side.

There are a couple of situations where keeping these details current matters. The International Pension Centre asks people receiving a UK State Pension abroad to report changes to personal details, such as address or bank details, by telephone or letter²⁵, and the guidance on the State Pension abroad lists the details an overseas account needs: the IBAN, a BIC, or a bank or brand code and account number²⁶. If your account details change and you do not tell the payer, payments can go astray. The same applies to anyone receiving regular payments from abroad, covered in regular payments abroad. And if you have lost touch with savings or investments held with NS&I, it provides a way to trace them and get back in contact²⁷.

Where the details are entered

The details all end up in the same place: the international payments section of your bank's app or online banking. Barclays describes the process as logging in to Online Banking, clicking the Move money tab, selecting International payment from the menu, following the on-screen instructions and authorising the payment with PINsentry²⁸. Its app allows sending money abroad to a choice of over 35 countries²⁹, and its online service reaches 130+ countries⁶.

The form you fill in asks for the details in a set order: who you are paying, their address, their account identifier (IBAN or account number), their bank's code, the amount and currency, and the purpose where required. Because the details are stored after the first payment², the second payment to the same person is a matter of a few taps. The choices that remain each time are the amount, the currency, and who pays the fees, and those are covered in ways to send money abroad.