IFSC code helps to transfer electronic money transfer between banks within India such as NEFT, RTGS, IMPS. MICR is a Magnetic Ink Recognition technology for making cheque processing faster and simpler. Purpose of SWIFT Code is the transferring of money between banks especially for international wire transfers and also used for exchanging of other messages between banks. What is IFSC, MICR, SWIFT Code, Difference between IFSC and MICR, IFSC and SWIFT

What is IFSC Code? What is MICR Code?

IFSC Code

IFSC or Indian Financial System Code is a special 11 digit code given to every bank branch in India. For example, the IFC code of SBI Main branch in Kolkata is given the code SBIN0000001. When a fund transfer is initiated by the payer be it NEFT, RTGS or IMPS, he has to provide the bank details such as bank name, branch, account number and the IFSC code of the payee. Once the payer provides all the required details only then will the fund be transferred to the account of the payee with the help of IFSC Code in an error-free manner. Fund transfer with IFSC code is secure, convenient and takes minutes from the time of initiation.

It is an 11 digit code with

• the first 4 characters being the abbreviation of the Bank
• control character in the fifth place, ( Reserved For Future Use)
• then the branch code will represent the last 6 characters.

All the banks have also been advised to print the IFSC of the branch on cheques issued by branches to their customers as shown in the image above. IFSC code is along with the address of the bank branch.

How to use IFSC code in NEFT

MICR Code

The MICR Code is a 9 digit numeric code that uniquely identifies a bank-branch participating in the ECS Credit scheme. MICR is an acronym for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition.

ECS Credit is used by an institution for affording credit to a large number of beneficiaries (for instance, employees, investors etc.) having accounts with bank branches at various locations within the jurisdiction of a ECS Centre by raising a single debit to the bank account of the user institution. ECS Credit enables payment of amounts towards distribution of dividend, interest, salary, pension, etc., of the user institution.

It is a 9 digit code to identify the location of the bank branch. The MICR Code allotted to a bank branch is printed on the MICR band of cheques issued by bank branches. In the image above it is shown in red at the bottom of the cheque.

• First three digit denotes city : The very first digits of MICR denotes city and are identical to the first three digits of your pin code. For Example First three digit of Pin code of  New Delhi =110 so first three digit of MICR code of all the bank branches located in New Delhi must be 110.
• Next three digits denote bank code : The next three digits of MICR code i.e. 4-6 digits denotes bank code. Each bank has its three digit unique bank code. For Example : SBI code is “002” so 4-6 digit of MICR Code of all the branches of SBI is “002” irrespective of location in the India.
• Next three digits denotebank branch code: The next three digits of MICR code i.e. 7-9 digits denotes bank branch code. Each bank has its 3 digits unique branch code. For Example SBI has one branch in Delhi with the branch code is “001”. So 7-9 digit of MICR Code of SBI Delhi branch is “001”.

You can get your MICR Code in following ways

• Your cheque book : Locate 9 digit number on your cheque book
• Your bank branch : Contact your bank branch to get your MICR code
• Online : Search online. All you need to do is give the name of your bank and branch.

Difference between the IFSC Code and MICR Code

SWIFT Code

The SWIFT code is an 8 or 11 alphanumeric characters code that uniquely identifies financial institution.  A SWIFT code is a universal way of identifying banks throughout the world. SWIFT code stands for ‘Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication’ code.   It is the standard format of Bank Identifier Codes (BIC) which is approved by the International Standard Organization (ISO) and represents a particular bank or bank branch. The purpose of these codes includes the transferring of money between banks especially for international wire transfers and also used for exchanging of other messages between banks. SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) is also known as BIC (Business Identifier Codes) and as SWIFT-BIC, BIC code, SWIFT code, ISO 9362.

The Swift code consists of 8 or 11 characters. When 8-digits code is given, it refers to the primary office. The code formatted as below;

SBIN IN BB 455

• First 4 characters – bank code (only letters) ex SBIN for State Bank of India
• Next 2 characters – ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code (only letters) ex IN
• Next 2 characters – location code (letters and digits) (passive participant will have “1” in the second character)
• Last 3 characters – branch code, optional (‘XXX’ for primary office) (letters and digits) ex 455 for Mylapore Chennai)

The registrations of Swift Codes are handled by Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (“SWIFT”) and their headquarters is located in La Hulpe, Belgium. SWIFT is the registered trademarks of S.W.I.F.T. SCRL with a registered address at Avenue Adèle 1, B-1310 La Hulpe, Belgium

How to find the SWIFT Code?

The SWIFT code is not associated with the bank branch but of the authorised dealer (Branch) of the bank with which your branch is connected.

You can contact your branch or any of the branch of your bank for the same.

Difference Between Swift Code And IFSC Code

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