SWIFT Codes of Banks in India 

What is full form of SWIFT ? What does SWIFT stand for ?

The full form of SWIFT is "Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication".   The headquarter of this Society is at La Hulpe, Belgium..   It handles the granting of codes to banks across the world and thus we can say that registration of SWIFT codes is handled by this Society.    As such "SWIFT"  is the registered trademarks of S.W.I.F.T. SCRL with its Registered Office being at ' Avenue Adèle 1, B-1310 La Hulpe, Belgium'.

SWIFT Codes are Used for What Purpose ?

SWIFT codes are a standard format of Bank Identifier Codes and each bank has a unique identification code.   Thus SWIFT is also sometimes known as BIC.   The SWIFT code is used for exchanging messages between banks.  The most popular messages sent through SWIFT relate to transferring money between banks i.e. international wire transfers.  Thus, in case you wish to transfer funds across countries, bank may ask you to give SWIFT code of the bank where you wish to transfer your funds.  

What does different digits of SWIFT indicate ?

The full SWIFT code for a branch consists of 11 characters (last three characters are branch code).  Thus, sometimes 8 digit code is also given for a bank.   The code thus consists of :-

      (a) First  FOUR characters  :  Bank Code (consists of only letters);

      (b) Next  TWO   characters :   ISO 3166-1 alpha- 2 country code (only letters)

      (c) Next  TWO   characters :  Location Code (letters and digits)  [Passive participants will have 1 in the second character]

      (d) Last THREE characters :  These are optional and are used for branch specific codes (For primary offices they use "XXX") - These can be letters and digits

List of Banks in India Which Have Been Given SWIFT Codes - Only Active Major Branches have been listed here

As an abundant caution, we suggest to check the codes with your bank too before finally remitting the funds to ensure that there is no change in the status of the branch code etc.