IBAN: What is it and how do I generate it in the UAE?

IBAN is the 23-digit, alpha-numeric acronym for the International Bank Account Number.

At the end of 2011, the Central Bank of UAE announced the introduction of the International Bank Account Number as a standard to identify bank accounts (but excluding checks and credit cards) in money transfers – including salaries, remittances internationally and for electronic payments.

The ISO 13616 international standard for bank account numbers is applicable to all account categories and is mandatory for making and receiving payments domestically in the UAE and internationally.

An International Bank Account Number has three components –

1. The two-letter country code (the first and second characters e.g. AE for the UAE)
2. Then the two-number check digit (third and fourth characters), which helps verify the number internationally
3. Then the three-number code for the bank itself and the customer account number, which together make up the Basic Bank Account Number (BBAN). The length of the customer account number here is fixed at 16 characters and can only contain numbers.

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Quick fact file

• This is not a new or revised account number. None of the existing numbers in the account are altered or changed. In fact, it is just a representation of each unique existing bank account in an ISO format.
• It improves the reliability and identifies the sender and beneficiary of any payment across bank accounts, vastly reducing the chances of an error.
• There are no spaces or special characters. According to UAE Central Bank guidelines, it should be written as a 23-digit, continuous string, without any spaces when entering it in an electronic payment message e.g. AE070331234567890123456.
• But when you write or print an IBAN on a document, it has to be split into six groups of four characters each, e.g. AE07 0331 2345 6789 0123 456, for easier recognition.
• Without an IBAN, your transaction will be rejected by banks and you may incur rejection fees too.
• Don’t use online software to generate IBANs for your accounts. You should approach the bank servicing your account to provide the correct number. Below are details of the banks’ own generator pages online.

[Related: What’s EIBOR/ LIBOR? | What is Credit Shield?]

Table 1: UAE bank IBAN generator URLs

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