Sort code


Sort codes are the domestic bank codes used to route money transfers between financial institutions in the United Kingdom, and historically in the Republic of Ireland. They are six-digit hierarchical numerical addresses that specify clearing banks, clearing systems, regions, large financial institutions, groups of financial institutions and ultimately resolve to individual branches. In the UK they continue to be used to route transactions domestically within clearance organisations and to identify accounts, while in the Republic of Ireland they have been deprecated and replaced by the SEPA systems and infrastructure.
Sort codes for Northern Ireland branches of banks were registered with the Irish Payment Services Organisation for both Northern Ireland and the Republic. These codes are used in the British clearing system and historically in the Irish system.
The sort code is usually formatted as three pairs of numbers, for example 12-34-56. It identifies both the bank and the branch where the account is held. Sort codes are encoded into IBANs but are not encoded into BICs.

History

Codes began to be used in the early 20th century to facilitate the manual processing of cheques. Known as a 'national code', these had between three and five digits.
The eleven London clearing banks were each allocated a main number, with the "big five" allocated single-digit numbers alphabetically. Lloyds Bank, for example, was allocated 3 and National Provincial was allocated 5. The remaining single digit codes were used to indicate that a cheque was from outside the London clearing system. The smaller clearing banks were allocated two-digit numbers, for example Martins was allocated 11.
The bank branches were allocated further digits by their bank to make up the entire number; some banks represented these on cheques in smaller type. Main clearing branches would have only one digit after the main number, e.g. 111. Metropolitan branches had two digits after the main number, e.g. 1124. Country branches made up the rest of the country, and used three or more digits after the main number, e.g. 11056. They were displayed on cheques in this fashion, with the bank identifier taking precedence.
Six-digit "sorting codes" were introduced in a staggered process from 1957 as the banking industry moved towards automation. The national codes were retained but where a single digit was used to identify the bank a two-digit range was introduced. So, for example, Barclays codes went from starting with a 2 to 20, Midland from 4 to 40, etc.
CodeBank
1Bank of England
2Barclays Bank
3Lloyds Bank
4Midland Bank
5National Provincial
6Westminster Bank
7Walks
8Scottish clearing
9Irish clearing
11Martins Bank
15Glyn, Mills & Co.
16Williams Deacon's Bank
17National Bank
18Coutts & Co.

List of sort codes of the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom the initial digits of bank sort codes were originally allocated to settlement members of the Cheque and Credit Clearing Company and the Belfast Bankers' Clearing Company. Today, sort codes are issued to any organisation that will be a direct member of a UK electronic payment network. Non-standard sort codes are issued to payment service providers who need an IBAN, for example for SEPA, as the sort code forms part of this.
The allocation of sort codes is managed by BACS. These numbers are six digits long, formatted into three pairs which are separated by hyphens.

Cheque clearing

The cheque clearing system in the United Kingdom is managed by Pay.UK, following the merger of the Cheque and Credit Clearing Company, BACS and Faster Payments Ltd in 2018. Since August 2019, sterling cheque clearing has been through the Image Clearing System.

England & Wales

In the following list the dates in parentheses give the year of merger with the present-day sort code holder, or its subsidiary.
RangeBankNote
00For IBAN use only
01National Westminster BankFormerly District Bank
04"Utility bank"Issued to new participants in the BACS, CHAPS and Faster Payments schemes; not usable for cheques
04-00-02BFC Bank
04-00-03 to Monzo
04-00-11Satabank
04-00-26N26
04-00-40Starling Bank
04-00-72 to Modulr
04-00-75Revolut
04-00-76LCH Limited
04-00-78Elavon Financial Services
04-00-79 to Virgin Money Head Office
04-03-00 to 04-03-29LHV Pank
04-04-05ClearBank
04-04-76 to Enumis
04-05-40 to BCB Group
04-13-01Midpoint & Transfer
04-13-02 to Bilderlings Pay
04-13-04 to Ecology Building Society
04-13-06Allpay Limited
04-13-07 to Clear Junction
04-13-12Modulr
04-13-13 to Project Imagine
04-13-15 to Universal Securities & Investment
04-13-17 to Contis Financial Services
04-13-42Duesday
05Clydesdale BankTrading as Yorkshire Bank
07-00 to 07-49Nationwide Building Society
08The Co-operative Bank
08-60 to 08-61The Co-operative BankFor building societies
08-60-64 for Virgin Money
08-90 to 08-99The Co-operative Bank
08-30 to 08-39Citibank08-31 to 08-32 for UK Government banking
09-00 to 09-19Santander UKFormerly Abbey National
09-00 to 09-19Santander UK
09-01-31 to 09-01-36 for

09-01-39 to 09-01-49 for Alliance & Leicester

09-01-51 to 09-01-56 migrated accounts
10-00 to 10-79Bank of EnglandPreviously used for government banking and BoE employee accounts
11Bank of ScotlandFor Halifax,
earlier used by Martins Bank
12-00 to 12-69Bank of ScotlandFor Sainsbury's Bank
13Barclays Bank
14Barclays Bank
15The Royal Bank of ScotlandFormerly Williams & Glyn's Bank,
itself formerly Glyn, Mills & Co
15-80The Royal Bank of ScotlandFor Child & Co. private bank,
part of The Royal Bank of Scotland
15-98 to 15-99The Royal Bank of ScotlandFor C. Hoare & Co, independent private bank
16The Royal Bank of ScotlandFormerly Williams & Glyn's Bank,
itself formerly Williams Deacon's Bank
16-00-38 for Drummonds Bank, part of The Royal Bank of Scotland

16-52-21 for the Cumberland Building Society

16-57-10 for Cater Allen Private Bank, part of Santander Group
17The Royal Bank of ScotlandFormerly Williams & Glyn's Bank,
itself formerly The National Bank
18The Royal Bank of ScotlandFor Coutts & Co, a subsidiary of National Westminster Bank
19The Royal Bank of Scotland
20 to 29Barclays Bank
20-11-47 for HMRC

23-00-88 for VFX Financial

23-05-80 for Metro Bank

23-14-70 for TransferWise

23-22-21 for Fire Financial Services

23-32-72 for Pockit

23-69-72 for Prepay Technologies

23-73-24 for Loot Financial Services
30 to 39Lloyds Bank and TSBFormerly Lloyds TSB
and earlier for Lloyds Bank
30-00-66for Arbuthnot Latham Private Bank

30-00-83for Al Rayan Bank

30-02-48for FinecoBank UK
40 to 49HSBC BankFormerly Midland Bank

49-99-79 to 49-99-99 for Deutsche Bank

40-12-50 to 40-12-55 for M&S Bank

40-47-58 to 40-47-87 for First Direct

40-51-78 for Jyske Bank Gibraltar

40-51-98 for Turkish Bank UK

40-60-80 for CashFlows

40-63-01 for the Coventry Building Society

40-63-77 for Cynergy Bank Limited

40-64-25 for Virgin Money

40-64-37 for Marcus
50 to 59National Westminster BankFormerly National Provincial Bank
60 to 66National Westminster BankFormerly Westminster Bank
60-83-12 for Atom Bank

60-83-14 for Gibraltar International Bank

60-83-66 for Fidor Bank UK

60-83-71 for Starling Bank
70Used by various international banks for their UK business: no longer issued.Banks including the Bank of Baroda, the National Bank of Pakistan as well as Close Brothers Group and Bank Hapoalim
71Bank of EnglandNational Savings Bank
72Santander UKFormerly Alliance & Leicester,
itself formerly Girobank
77-00 to 77-44Lloyds Bank and TSBFormerly Lloyds TSB
and earlier for Trustee Savings Bank
77-46 to 77-99Lloyds Bank and TSBFormerly Lloyds TSB
and earlier for Trustee Savings Bank

Scotland

Separately operated by the Committee of Scottish Clearing Bankers until 1985.
RangeBankNote
80 to 81Bank of Scotland
82Clydesdale Bank
83The Royal Bank of Scotlandformerly National Commercial Bank of Scotland,
formerly Commercial Bank of Scotland
84The Royal Bank of Scotlandformerly National Commercial Bank of Scotland,
formerly National Bank of Scotland
86The Royal Bank of Scotland
87TSBformerly Lloyds TSB Scotland
formerly TSB Scotland
89-00 to 89-29Santander UKformerly Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank
formerly Girobank

Northern Ireland

The clearing system in Northern Ireland was operated under the Belfast Clearing Rules which were agreed by the Belfast Bankers' Clearing Company, until the introduction of the Image Clearing System managed by Pay.UK which was completed in August 2019. Sort codes in the 90 range are managed by the Irish Payment Services Organisation.
RangeBankNote
90Bank of Ireland
91Northern Banktrading as Danske Bank since 2012
formerly Belfast Bank
93Allied Irish Banks for AIB
formerly First Trust Bank
formerly TSB Northern Ireland
94Bank of Ireland
95Northern Banktrading as Danske Bank since 2012
former Midland Bank subsidiary
98Ulster Banksubsidiary of National Westminster Bank

Sort codes of the Republic of Ireland

Sort codes are no longer directly used in the Republic of Ireland, although they still form part of the underlying structure of account numbers. As a part of the Eurozone, all aspects of the SEPA system are fully implemented and adhered to. This means that all domestic transactions, including Direct Debit and interbank transfers are processed using an IBAN through the SEPA system. The Irish electronic clearing systems, including those run by the Irish Retail Electronic Payments Clearing Company Ltd, which entered voluntary liquidation in late 2014, have been retired and replaced by SEPA. Domestic cheques continue to be processed by the Irish Paper Clearing Company CLG.
Historically, the Irish banking system shared the sort code structure used in the UK, but operated as a separate system since the Irish pound broke the link with sterling in March 1979. Codes are issued by the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland which replaced IPSO in 2014.
The full list of sort codes used in Ireland is as follows:
Note: A large number of lower volume users and smaller banks share the 99 XX XX code and there are at least three users of the 93 XX XX codes assigned primarily to AIB.
RangeBankNote
90Bank of Ireland
92Central Bank of Ireland
93AIB Bank
93-09-03 for JP Morgan Bank Ireland plc

93-90-21 for EBS d.a.c.
95Danske Bank trading as Danske Bank
98Ulster Bank Ireland dac
99
99-00-51 to 99-00-52 Citibank Europe plc

99-00-61 to 99-00-62 Bank of America

99-03-01 An Post

99-11-99 Fire Financial Services

99-99-01 Central Bank of Ireland for the Paymaster General of Ireland

Irish Bank Resolution Corporation

Realex Financial Services
99 is used by a large number of financial institutions, particular those with smaller branch networks or a single branch.
99-02BNP Paribas Ireland
99-02-04 for The Royal Bank of Scotland
99-02-12 for Barclays Bank Ireland

99-03-20 for Aareal Bank

99-03-25 for CACEIS Bank

99-02-31 for HSBC Bank

99-02-40 for ING Bank

99-02-60 for Rabobank International

99-02-70 for KBC Bank Ireland
99-04Bank of Scotland
99-06 to 99-07Permanent TSB
99-10BNP Paribas Ireland for Irish Credit Unions
99-21 to 99-22Irish Credit Unions

Irish bank account numbers are now presented in the IBAN format as follows:
IE97 BANK 9799 9912 3456 78
This corresponds to the fictitious sort code: 97-99-99 and account: 12345678, prefixed by ISO Country code: IE, IBAN check digits 97 and Bank Identifier: BANK

Sort codes in the 70 range – "walks"

Numbers starting with a '7' were reserved for the large number of London offices of banks which were not members of the London Clearing. Individual sort codes were allocated on a one-off basis to the many London offices of private and foreign banks. Cheques drawn on these banks were colloquially known within the banking industry as 'walks' because they were cleared by being hand-delivered to the drawee banks by messengers from the Clearing House. By the 1990s, all these banks had been issued with sort codes within the ranges of the various clearing banks which, from then on, acted as clearing agents for them. The practice of "walking" cheques was ended and use of the 70 code range was discontinued.

International clearance

Within the Eurozone, only IBAN numbers are required. Transfers to and from the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia and any other countries outside the Eurozone continue to use international networks and require a combination of IBAN alongside a BIC code to identify the institution sending and receiving payments. Characters 9 to 14 of British and Irish IBANs hold the bank account sort code.
In some countries there is no direct equivalent of sort codes as the bank and branch codes are maintained separately from each other in those countries. Other countries, however, have or had codes which are equivalent to sort codes, but with formats unique to the country concerned. Examples include:
The codes listed above for Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Sweden are incorporated into the IBANs for those countries.