Portuguese Bank BIC/SWIFT Codes

Bank codes in Portugal: the full list with BICs

Banco de Portugal publishes the list of the 105 codes that can appear in positions 5 to 8 of a Portuguese IBAN and, separately, the BIC of each institution that takes part in SICOI, the Portuguese interbank clearing system. The table joins the two. A dash in the BIC column means the code is not in the BIC list: the institution may have a BIC, but it does not publish it there, so ask it directly. Code 0045 covers the whole Crédito Agrícola group (68 institutions). To convert an old NIB, use the NIB ↔ IBAN converter; to check a foreign IBAN, the IBAN validator.

What the BIC (SWIFT code) is and when you are asked for it

BIC stands for Business Identifier Code. Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 defines it as a code that unambiguously identifies a payment service provider, with its elements set by the ISO 9362 standard. BICs are issued by Swift as the ISO registration authority; hence the name «SWIFT code». It has 8 characters: 4 for the institution, the country (PT) and 2 for the location. It may carry 3 more, optional, for a branch or unit. Banco de Portugal’s list writes every BIC with 11 characters, ending in XXX.

For euro credit transfers and direct debits between EU banks, the BIC is no longer required. Article 5(7) of the regulation says that after 1 February 2014 for domestic payments and 1 February 2016 for cross-border ones, banks may not require customers to give the BIC of the payer’s or the payee’s bank. The IBAN is enough.

The regulation only covers euro payments where both the payer’s and the payee’s banks are in the EU. For a transfer in another currency, or to or from a bank outside the EU, the bank’s own rules apply and it may ask for the BIC. If a form asks for it, use the BIC from the table.

How to read a Portuguese IBAN

A Portuguese IBAN has 25 characters: PT, two check digits and the old 21-digit NIB. According to Banco de Portugal, the check digits of a Portuguese IBAN are always 50, because the NIB already carries its own check digits, computed with the same algorithm. The example is the one in Banco de Portugal’s document:

To validate PT50 0001 0000 1234 5678 9019 4: remove the spaces, move PT50 to the end (000100001234567890194PT50), turn the letters into numbers (P = 25, T = 29, so 000100001234567890194252950) and divide by 97. The remainder is 1, so the IBAN is valid. For the NIB, the same division runs on the 21 digits alone (000100001234567890194), which also leaves 1. A remainder other than 1 almost always gives away a mistyped digit or two swapped ones.

A correct sum does not prove the account exists. Banco de Portugal warns that validation only shows the IBAN is well formed: it may match an account that does not exist or has been closed.

Where to find your IBAN and your bank’s BIC

The IBAN belongs to the account and appears in the account details in your bank’s app and online banking; Banco CTT, for instance, points to its app, the online banking personal area and its shops, and ABANCA to its app and Online Banking. The BIC belongs to the bank: Banco de Portugal links one BIC to each IBAN bank code. These banks publish it on their own sites:

• Caixa Geral de Depósitos · CGDIPTPL (code 0035)
• Millennium bcp · BCOMPTPL (code 0033)
• Novo Banco · BESCPTPL (code 0007)
• Santander · TOTAPTPL (code 0018)
• BPI · BBPIPTPL (code 0010)
• Crédito Agrícola · CCCMPTPL (code 0045)
• ABANCA · CAGLPTPL (code 0170)
• Banco Best · BESZPTPL (code 0065)

Before you authorise a transfer, the bank shows the name of the first holder of the destination account. This is payee confirmation, available since 20 May 2024, free of charge, in the app, online banking and at the branch; Banco de Portugal makes it mandatory for banks that send SEPA or instant transfers through SICOI, the interbank clearing system. It is the way to confirm that an IBAN belongs to who it should, which the checksum cannot do.

Asked for an IBAN starting with PT50?

Anyone paying or collecting by transfer or direct debit in the European Economic Area may not require the account to be in a given country. Banco de Portugal calls this IBAN discrimination and gives as the most serious example requiring an IBAN starting with PT50, as well as making holders of a foreign IBAN go to a branch. You can report it to Banco de Portugal through a form; if the entity is a bank or another supervised institution, the complaint goes in its complaints book or on the Portal do Cliente Bancário.