Ireland | Bank Payments | IBAN

The IBAN is made up of the following elements:

• A two letter country code

• A two digit check-digit for the entire IBAN

• The basic bank account number (BBAN) which comprises the routing code for the bank and the account number of the customer

The basic bank account number in Ireland is a fourteen digit number comprising a six digit routing code and an eight digit account number - all numeric. 

The Irish IBAN consists of 22 characters, made up as follows:

*ISO 3166 country codes

**The Bank Identifier consists of the first four characters of the SWIFT address. Some Irish banks use a combination of letters and numbers in the account number field.
 

Example

IE29 AIBK 9311 5212 3456 78

IBANs should only be generated by the account operating bank.

EU law requires all banks operating in the Euro currency zone to show a customer's IBAN on their bank statements.   Account holders are required to notify their business partners of their IBAN on their letterheading and invoices.

In particular IBANs are required to be quoted on all payment instructions from customers to their banks in order to qualify for the free or low cost payment service for transactions of less than EUR 12,500 value.

IBAN Verification

IBANs can be verified by performing a computational check of the account number against the checkdigits. 
 

Barcoding IBANs

The IBAN can be barcoded on paper documents (eg invoices) using the PDF417 two dimensional barcode. This allows the IBAN and related payment information to be quickly and accurately captured from a machine readable paper based source.

The single barcode image can store:

• The IBAN

• The beneficiary account title

• The BIC (eg SWIFT code) of the beneficiary's bank

• The currency and amount of the payment due

• Other details relating to the payee

This barcode is always used on the IPI form (International Payment Instruction) which replaces the giro payment slip formerly found on invoices and other demands for payment.

Links

ECBS

IPSO