A SWIFT code, also called a BIC, identifies a specific bank in an international transfer. It is 8 or 11 characters covering the institution, country, location and optionally the branch. Senders overseas usually need the recipient bank’s SWIFT code to route money to Australia.
SWIFT is the messaging network most of the world’s banks use to instruct cross-border payments, and the code, formally a Business Identifier Code under ISO 9362, is the addressing system that makes those messages routable. The first four characters identify the institution, the next two the country, the next two the location, and an optional final three the branch.
The code identifies a bank, not an account. An international transfer to Australia typically needs the SWIFT code to reach the right institution, then the BSB and account number to reach the right account. Domestic Australian transfers never use SWIFT codes at all.
An 11-character BIC is four fixed-width fields, and their widths add up: 4 plus 2 plus 2 plus 3. Swift, the registration authority for ISO 9362, enforces a narrower pattern than the standard itself permits, and the narrowing is in the character classes rather than the lengths. The first six positions take letters only, A to Z in upper case, so the four-character prefix has 26 to the fourth power, or 456,976, possible values. The last five admit digits as well, except that the eighth position never carries a 0 or a 1: 34 of the 36 upper-case alphanumeric characters, not all 36. The three-character branch field then multiplies each eight-character code into 36 cubed, or 46,656, addressable forms, one of which, XXX, denotes the head office itself.
Banks publish their own SWIFT codes on their websites and statements; the receive-money pages on Tradergy walk through which details a sender needs for each direction.
Longer read: Who maintains the codes on an international transfer. Three codes on one payment instruction, kept in three separate registers by three different bodies. What each one names, how a country gets its format onto the list, why Australia never did, and the question none of them answers.
For the live side of this definition, head to the send-money corridor pages.
Related terms
IBAN · BSB number · Remittance · All terms
Primary authority: Swift, BIC (ISO 9362). Definition reviewed against the authority’s published material; this page is reference information, not advice.
Common questions
Is a SWIFT code the same as a BIC?
Yes. BIC is the formal name of the identifier and SWIFT is the network it is used on, so the two labels describe the same code. Some banks print one term, some the other, and either satisfies a transfer form.
Do I need a SWIFT code to receive money in Australia?
Usually yes. The overseas sender will be asked for your bank’s SWIFT code plus your BSB and account number. Your bank publishes its SWIFT code; it is the same for all customers of that institution.
Are SWIFT codes the same for every branch?
Not always. An 8-character code addresses the institution’s head office, and an 11-character code adds a specific branch. Many Australian banks use a single institution-level code for all inbound international transfers, with the BSB doing the branch-level work domestically.