What Bank Details Do You Need to Receive Money from Abroad?

Last checked 30 September 2026

To receive money from abroad into a bank account, the sender usually needs three things: your name as the bank holds it, something that identifies your account, and something that identifies your bank. Which exact codes those are depends on the country — an IBAN in some, a local account number plus a bank or branch code in others. Get them from your bank, not from memory or a search result.

And one rule before anything else: nobody needs your online-banking password, PIN, card security code or a one-time code to send money into your account.

Start with your bank’s own instructions

Search your bank’s app or website for “receive an international transfer” or “incoming international payment”. Banks often publish a specific set of details for payments from abroad, which can differ from what you use at home. A typical set:

Detail	What it identifies
Account holder name	You, exactly as the bank holds your name
IBAN or account number	Your account
SWIFT/BIC	Your bank
Local bank or branch code	Your bank or branch, in countries that use one
Bank name and address	Sometimes asked for by the sender’s bank
Your address	Often asked for on international payment forms
Currency	What the account can receive

Not every transfer needs every item. The sender should follow what their own bank or transfer service asks for. If the recipient has no bank account at all, see how to receive money from abroad without one.

IBAN identifies the account — where IBAN exists

IBAN stands for International Bank Account Number. Swift, which registers each country’s IBAN format, describes it as a standard that “facilitates the automation of cross-border payment transaction processing”, with “its particular national IBAN format” for each country. It is not one worldwide format: a German IBAN is 22 characters, a Pakistani one 24, one from the UAE 23. Swift’s own example of a German IBAN is DE89 3704 0044 0532 0130 00 — the first two letters give the country.

Do not build an IBAN yourself by adding a country code to your account number. Copy the one your bank gives you.

Many countries do not use IBAN at all

Swift’s IBAN registry listed 89 national formats when we checked. Several countries that receive a great deal of money from abroad are not among them — including Nigeria, India, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Mexico and the United States. If a sender asks a recipient in one of those countries for an IBAN, the recipient should not try to invent one; the sender’s bank will ask for a local account number and bank details instead.

Receiving country	IBAN?	What else the sender’s form may ask for
Germany	Yes, 22 characters	Bank’s BIC
Pakistan	Yes, 24 characters	Bank’s BIC
United Arab Emirates	Yes, 23 characters	Bank’s BIC
Nigeria	No	The 10-digit NUBAN account number and the bank — see how the NUBAN works
India	No	Account number and the branch’s IFSC
Bangladesh	No	Account number and bank and branch details
Philippines	No	Account number and bank details — ask the bank
Mexico	No	A CLABE

This table is a guide, not a substitute for your bank’s instructions; different banks and providers can ask for different details for the same country.

SWIFT/BIC identifies the bank

BIC stands for Business Identifier Code, and “SWIFT code” usually means the same thing. Swift defines it as an 8-character code — four characters for the institution, two letters for the country and two more characters — plus an optional 3-character branch identifier. So a BIC is 8 or 11 characters.

Use the BIC your bank gives for incoming international payments. Do not take the first one a search result shows for your bank’s name: large banks can have different BICs for different countries, entities, branches or services.

IBAN and BIC are not the same thing

The IBAN or account number says which account. The BIC says which bank. Often the sender needs both. A BIC alone does not tell the bank which customer to credit; an account number alone may not be enough to route an international payment to the right bank.

Local codes: IFSC, NUBAN, CLABE

IFSC (India). The Reserve Bank of India describes it as an 11-character code that “uniquely identifies a bank-branch”: the first four letters are the bank, the fifth character is 0, and the last six are the branch. Branches have their own codes, so do not guess one from the bank’s name. RBI has asked banks to print it on cheques, and publishes the full list.
NUBAN (Nigeria). The standard 10-digit Nigerian account number, whose last digit is a check digit that catches typing mistakes. We explain it in Nigerian account numbers and the NUBAN.
CLABE (Mexico). Mexico’s bank-account identifier; Banco de México’s payment tracker identifies the receiving account by its CLABE (or a debit card or mobile number). If the sender’s form asks for it, get it from the recipient’s bank.

The sender should select the destination country first; a good transfer form then asks for whatever that country needs.

Which number is your account number

Use whatever your bank labels as the account identifier for incoming international payments. Do not use the long number on the front of your debit or credit card, its expiry date, the security code on the back, or an online-banking customer number unless the bank says it is your account identifier. A card number is not an account number, and nobody sending money to your account needs your card details.

Give your name exactly as the bank has it

If the account is in the name Adaeze Chioma Okafor, do not tell the sender Ada Okafor. Use the name on the account.

Do not rely on the name to catch a wrong number, either. Within the EU, banks in euro-area countries have had to check the payee’s name against the account for euro transfers since 9 October 2025 — but even there, if the name does not match, the law only requires the sender to be warned that paying “might lead to transferring the funds to a payment account not held by the payee”. The sender can still go ahead. For payments from outside that system, there may be no name check at all. Check every field.

Your address, and your bank’s

International payment forms often ask for the recipient’s address. That is normal. Give the address the bank has for you. “Recipient address” and “bank address” are different fields: do not put a branch address where your own address belongs. If the form asks for the bank’s address, use the one in your bank’s international payment instructions — it may be a head office or processing address rather than your branch.

Check which currency your account can receive

The right account number does not settle the currency. If your account is in euros and the sender sends dollars, the bank may convert them, require a different account, or the conversion may happen elsewhere along the way — and each changes how much arrives. Before a large payment, ask your bank: “Can this account receive [currency] directly, and what happens if a transfer arrives in it?” Why this matters is covered in why did I receive less than was sent.

Send the details as one clean block

Details spread across several chat messages invite mistakes. Send them together, copied from your bank:

Account holder: [name exactly as the bank holds it]
IBAN or account number: [from the bank]
Bank: [bank name]
SWIFT/BIC: [the code for incoming international payments]
Local code: [IFSC or other, if needed]
Bank address: [if needed]
My address: [if needed]
Currency to send: [once confirmed with the bank]

For a large transfer, ask the sender to read the details back before they pay — and consider a small test payment first, as we explain in one large transfer or several small.

What never to share

Details that let someone pay you are different from details that let someone get into your account. To send you an ordinary bank transfer, nobody needs your:

online-banking password;
card or ATM PIN;
card security code (CVV/CVC);
one-time password or verification code;
approval in your banking app;
security-question answers.

Never approve a login or payment request because someone says it is needed so they can send you money. A person sending you money does not need to log in to your bank.

Be careful with screenshots of your banking app too: they can show your balance, recent transactions, customer number, other accounts or part of a card number. Send only what the transfer needs — or use the app’s “share account details” option if it has one.

Check unfamiliar requests with your bank

If the sender says “your bank says I need another code”, do not guess. Ask which field their bank is asking for, then check your own bank’s official instructions. If an email claims your bank details have changed, do not use any contact details in that email — use your banking app, the bank’s official website, or a number you already know is genuine. For business payments, confirm any change of bank details through a separate channel before a large transfer.

A checklist before the sender pays

The account-holder name is exactly as the bank has it.
The IBAN or account number came from your bank.
The SWIFT/BIC is the one your bank gives for incoming international payments.
Any local code — IFSC, CLABE or other — is correct.
You know which currency will be sent, and that your account can receive it.
Your address and the bank’s address have not been swapped.
You have not shared a password, PIN, security code or one-time code.

How we checked this

Read on 30 September 2026: Swift’s pages on the IBAN and the BIC, for the definitions, the ISO standards and the BIC structure; Swift’s IBAN registry in text format, for the number of countries, each country’s IBAN length and the German example, and for the absence of Nigeria, India, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Mexico and the United States; the Reserve Bank of India’s NEFT FAQ, for the IFSC format and where to find it; Banco de México’s payment tracker, for the CLABE as the beneficiary account identifier; Wise’s guide to BDT transfers, for the details needed for a Bangladeshi bank account; and EU Regulation (EU) 2024/886, for the verification-of-payee rule and its dates. The Nigerian NUBAN details come from the Central Bank of Nigeria standard cited on our NUBAN guide.

Sources

Afromium does not make test transfers and has no access to any bank’s systems. This page explains the common identifiers used to receive international payments; your bank’s own instructions decide what it needs. Always copy the details from your bank, and check them before the sender pays.