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In order to identify Financial Institutions unambiguously, SWIFT developed the Bank Identifier Code (BIC). The BIC in particular enhances STP in cross-border financial messages. BIC was adopted by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). ISO has appointed SWIFT as the registration authority for the assignment of BICs (ISO 9362) and for the publication of BICs in the BIC Directory.

The anatomy of a BIC
Bank code Country code Location code
The bank code identifies the financial institution, for example BNPA for BNP-Paribas.
The bank code consists of four alphabetic characters.
The ISO country code identifies the country in which the financial institution is located, for example FR for France.
The ISO country code consists of two alphabetic characters.
The location code, provides geographical distinction within a country, such as a city, state, province or time zone, for example PP for Paris.
The location code consists of two characters that can be alphabetic or numeric.
The BIC is written and printed as an eight-character string without spaces.
Connected and unconnected BICs

BICs identify Financial Institutions regardless of their connectivity to the SWIFT network. However, a BIC that identifies a financial institution not connected to the SWIFT network has the location code ending with the digit “1”, for example KESADEF1. Such BIC is also called a non-SWIFT BIC or a BIC1.

A BIC that identifies a financial institution connected to the SWIFT network has a location code ending with a character other than “1”, for example BNPAFRPP. Such BIC is also called a connected BIC or a SWIFT BIC. Consequently, only a SWIFT BIC can appear in the header of a SWIFT message.
Branch code

Optionally, a BIC can be extended to an 11 character BIC by adding a branch code.

The branch code identifies the physical branch of a financial institution, for example MAR for Marseille, or its department or type of business. The branch code consists of three alphanumeric characters.