History and Background

It became mandatory for Banks in the EU to issue IBANs, on request, on all accounts from 31 December 2001.

EU Regulation 2560/2001 requires banks to provide the IBAN and their BIC (Bank Identifier Code) to their customers. This resulted in the requirement for Banks to display IBAN & BICs on customer statements from 1 July 2003.

This EU Regulation also requires customers to communicate the IBAN of their account and the related BIC on all invoices that require electronic payment to settle a cross-border transaction.

From 1 July 2003 many banks demanded IBAN & BIC as Account and Bank identifiers respectively, for beneficiary parties in order to make payments in any currency cross-border in the EU.

It is the European Commission's strategy that there will be a single market for cross-border payments in euro, which is known as SEPA - Single Euro Payment Area. It is working with the European Payments Council, which represents all banks in the EU, to achieve this goal.