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No, SEPA/IBAN is Europe-only: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Bank_Account_Number#National_check_digits https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International

No, SEPA/IBAN is Europe-only: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Bank_Account_Number#National_check_digits https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Bank_Account_Num... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area Only European bank accounts can do SEPA transfers.

6510 3y ago
IBAN is International. https://www.swift.com/resource/iban-registry-pdf https://www.swift.com/resource/iban-registry-pdf
- crotchfire 3y ago
  What's your point? Europe is many nations, not one.
  - 6510 3y ago
    For example Emirates and Egypt are not in Europe.
  - piaste 3y ago
    I think OP's point was that SEPA and IBAN are completely different things. SEPA is the Eurozone area that treats all transfers as domestic - usually free or near-free, and fast (max 1 day normally, max 10 seconds for instant transfer). IBAN is just a numbering scheme to uniquely identify bank accounts worldwide. It has nothing to do with transfers. The closest thing would be SWIFT, though that's just an information protocol and says nothing about fees or times.
- adrianmsmith 3y ago
  Notably US is missing though.
  - zilti 3y ago
    Classic USA move
Viliam1234 3y ago
SEPA is EU only. IBAN is also used by some countries outside of EU. It's basically just a way to assign an alphanumeric code to an account so that it also includes a country code, bank code, and checksum.
- Aachen 3y ago
  How do bank transfers work outside of the IBAN area then? I seem to remember that, also before IBAN, you'd put in the bank identifier (BIC?) and account number and the bank would figure it out from there. (I've heard stuff about bank "routing" but assume that's a thing the bank does for you.) Also when getting money from Japan (mtgox), I had to put in the bank's branch address and some funny details one doesn't usually need, but it's possible to receive it on my IBAN account
  - Viliam1234 3y ago
    Looking to XML schema of pacs.008.001.07 that I found here: https://github.com/yudhik/example-iso-20022/blob/master/src/main/java/id/brainmaster/iso20022/model/pacs.008.001.07.xsd https://github.com/yudhik/example-iso-20022/blob/master/src/... . According to SWIFT, the account is defined by a combination of bank identifier and account identifier. That is, account identifiers are supposed to be unique only within the bank. (Not sure about this part.) There are many ways to identify an account, IBAN is one of them. Other methods require you to specify a "schema" (one of predefined codes 1-4 characters long), an "issuer" (string up to 35 chars), and "id" (string up to 34 chars). I suppose banks know the values that make sense for their customers, and otherwise just forward the information to other banks. IBAN is an alphanumeric string, where the first two characters are country code, and the meaning of the rest is country-specific. BIC is encoded in IBAN, so the information provided is redundant (in the payment you specify both the bank and the account, but the account also specifies the bank). . SEPA is a subset of SWIFT, with extra rules imposed. The currency is EUR, and the only allowed account identifier is IBAN. That means, SEPA requires IBAN, but you can also use IBAN outside of SEPA as one of many possible ways of identifying the account. For example, if I pay from EU to USA, I am using my IBAN account in a non-SEPA payment.

6510 3y ago

IBAN is International. https://www.swift.com/resource/iban-registry-pdf https://www.swift.com/resource/iban-registry-pdf

crotchfire 3y ago
What's your point? Europe is many nations, not one.
- 6510 3y ago
  For example Emirates and Egypt are not in Europe.
- piaste 3y ago
  I think OP's point was that SEPA and IBAN are completely different things. SEPA is the Eurozone area that treats all transfers as domestic - usually free or near-free, and fast (max 1 day normally, max 10 seconds for instant transfer). IBAN is just a numbering scheme to uniquely identify bank accounts worldwide. It has nothing to do with transfers. The closest thing would be SWIFT, though that's just an information protocol and says nothing about fees or times.
adrianmsmith 3y ago
Notably US is missing though.
- zilti 3y ago
  Classic USA move

Viliam1234 3y ago

SEPA is EU only. IBAN is also used by some countries outside of EU. It's basically just a way to assign an alphanumeric code to an account so that it also includes a country code, bank code, and checksum.

Aachen 3y ago
How do bank transfers work outside of the IBAN area then? I seem to remember that, also before IBAN, you'd put in the bank identifier (BIC?) and account number and the bank would figure it out from there. (I've heard stuff about bank "routing" but assume that's a thing the bank does for you.) Also when getting money from Japan (mtgox), I had to put in the bank's branch address and some funny details one doesn't usually need, but it's possible to receive it on my IBAN account
- Viliam1234 3y ago
  Looking to XML schema of pacs.008.001.07 that I found here: https://github.com/yudhik/example-iso-20022/blob/master/src/main/java/id/brainmaster/iso20022/model/pacs.008.001.07.xsd https://github.com/yudhik/example-iso-20022/blob/master/src/... . According to SWIFT, the account is defined by a combination of bank identifier and account identifier. That is, account identifiers are supposed to be unique only within the bank. (Not sure about this part.) There are many ways to identify an account, IBAN is one of them. Other methods require you to specify a "schema" (one of predefined codes 1-4 characters long), an "issuer" (string up to 35 chars), and "id" (string up to 34 chars). I suppose banks know the values that make sense for their customers, and otherwise just forward the information to other banks. IBAN is an alphanumeric string, where the first two characters are country code, and the meaning of the rest is country-specific. BIC is encoded in IBAN, so the information provided is redundant (in the payment you specify both the bank and the account, but the account also specifies the bank). . SEPA is a subset of SWIFT, with extra rules imposed. The currency is EUR, and the only allowed account identifier is IBAN. That means, SEPA requires IBAN, but you can also use IBAN outside of SEPA as one of many possible ways of identifying the account. For example, if I pay from EU to USA, I am using my IBAN account in a non-SEPA payment.