Sort Code - International Clearance

International Clearance

The British and Irish sort codes are only used for domestic money transfers. If money is being transferred across international borders, an international network is used. Many European countries use the IBAN as a means of identifying bank account numbers, but transfers to, amongst others, the United States and Australia make use of the BIC Codes. Characters 9 to 14 of British and Irish IBANs hold the bank account sort code.

In some countries there is no direct equivalent of sort codes as the bank and branch codes are maintained separately from each other in those countries. Other countries, however, have codes which are equivalent to sort codes, but with formats unique to the country concerned. Examples include:

The codes listed above for Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Sweden are incorporated into the IBANs for those countries.