Circular No. 3625 — Establishes standard format for identification of bank accounts held in Brazil for international fund transfers (IBAN format) and regulates its use

The Collegiate Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Brazil, in a session held on February 14, 2013, based on art. 11, item VII, of Law No. 4.595, of December 31, 1964, art. 10 of Law No. 10.214, of March 27, 2001, and arts. 4, 10, and 11 of Resolution No. 2.882, of August 30, 2001, having in view the provisions of Vote 139/2012–BCB, of June 26, 2012,

RESOLVES:

Art. 1. The ISO 13616 standard (International Bank Account Number – IBAN) is established as the standard format for the identification of bank accounts held in Brazil in international fund transfers, designated as IBAN format for the purposes of this Circular.

Art. 2. The IBAN format, composed of 29 characters, follows the following formation criteria:

I - two alphanumeric characters corresponding to the country code, according to ISO 3166-1 standard;

II - two check digits (mod 97), according to ISO 7064 standard;

III - eight numeric characters corresponding to the financial institution identifier (ISPB), according to the list of participants in the Reserve Transfer System (STR) published on the website of the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB);

IV - five numeric characters corresponding to the bank branch identification (without check digit);

V - ten numeric characters corresponding to the client account number (with check digit);

VI - one alphanumeric character corresponding to the account type, according to the types dictionary of the SFN Messages and Files Catalog (2nd character); and

VII - one alphanumeric character corresponding to the account holder identification, according to the order in the list of holders.

§ 1. The identification of the account holder, referred to in item VII, shall be carried out by:

I - assigning the numerals “1” for the first or sole holder, “2” for the second holder, and so on, up to the ninth holder;

II - assigning the letters “A” for the tenth holder, “B” for the eleventh, and so on, using the alphabetical characters from “A” to “Z” (including “K”, “W”, and “Y”).

§ 2. The validation of the standard format must not differentiate between uppercase and lowercase characters.

§ 3. Numeric fields must, whenever necessary, be filled with leading zeros.

§ 4. The presentation of the IBAN format must be done in groups of four characters separated by a space, with all characters in uppercase, in order to facilitate its automation and reading, including electronic reading.

Art. 3. Financial institutions, with reference to international fund transfers for credit to their clients, must:

I - provide the account identification in IBAN format to their clients, at any time, upon their request; and

II - accept transfers made using the IBAN format, performing the validations under their responsibility.

Art. 4. This Circular enters into force on the date of its publication, except for art. 3, which will enter into force on July 1, 2013.

                     Aldo Luiz Mendes  
              Director of Monetary Policy