Glossary of foreign exchange terms

When making a money transfer to the USA, you’ll need to ask for your payee’s ABA number.
An ABA number, also known as a bank routing number, is a nine-digit code that identifies banks in the U.S.

IBAN stands for International Bank Account Number. It’s a standardised way to identify a bank account and it’s used to facilitate the processing of cross-border transactions without error. It consists of up to 34 characters.

This is an example format of a UK IBAN number:

GB 29 ABCD 601*** 945*****

[Country code] [Check digits] [Bank code] [Branch code] [Bank account number]

Read our detailed guides for more:

• What is an IBAN number?
• The difference between IBAN and SWIFT

SWIFT codes are not the same as sort codes.

A SWIFT code (sometimes also called a SWIFT number) is an international bank code that identifies banks all over the world for international payments. It is also known as a Bank Identifier Code (BIC).

A SWIFT code is a set of 8 or 11 characters (numbers and letters) that represents a bank branch, and is made up of the first three or all four of the following:

• Bank code
• Country code
• Location code
• Branch code

Read our guide to the difference between IBANs and SWIFT codes.

The date when a currency transaction takes places or a trade being booked.