Important Codes / Numbers Used in Banking and Financial Sector

March 6, 2020

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Banking Awareness plays a very vital role in your final selection to any competitive exam related to banking. As a banker, you should be adept with every minute details or issues happening in the banking and financial sector. To make your journey easy, below is the list of some important codes and numbers that are very often used in banking and financial sector.

As SBI Clerk, RBI Assistant, NABARD Grade A and many more exams are on the way so there are strong chances that these Important Codes or Numbers used in Banking and Financial Sector can appear in the exam as many such entities have been in the news recently.

Brief Definition of Important Codes in Banking and Financial Sector

IFSC – stands for Indian Financial System Code. It is an 11 character alphanumeric code assigned by RBI, to uniquely identify a bank- branch participating in the electronic fund’s settlement systems namely – Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) in India. IFSC Code list for all the banks is available on the RBI website or on your bank account passbook, cheque book.

Example – SBIN0018095 – The first four alphabets represent the bank, fifth character is always 0 and the last six represents the branch.

MICR – stands for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. It is a 9 digit unique code that identifies the particular branch of a particular bank and used mainly by the banking industry to ease the clearance process of cheques and other documents. It is present at the bottom of the cheques.

Example – 695002032 – first three digits denote the city code of the bank branch, next three denotes the bank code and the last three represents the bank branch.

BSR– stands for Basic Statistical Returns. It is a 7 digit code allotted to banks by the Reserve Bank of India. BSR code is assigned separately to each bank branch to identify returns submitted to the RBI by the Income Tax Department. Basically used in details related to deductee and challan, during TDS/TCS returns. Example: BSR Code of a branch of SBI in Delhi Chandni Chowk is 0020001.

SWIFT – stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. It is an internationally recognized 8 to 11 alphabetic bank code to identify the banks all over the world. Also known as Bank Identifier Code or BIC is approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and is used for overseas fund transfer for the particular bank. These codes are used when transferring money between banks and for exchange of other messages between banks in a standardized, reliable and secure environment.

Example – SWIFT Code of a branch of SBI in Delhi is SBININBB476- where first four alphabetic characters denote bank name, next two alphabets represent the country name, next two letters/ digits denote the location code and last three represents the branch code. It is not necessary that each bank branch has individual SWIFT codes.

PAN– Permanent Account Number is a 10 character alphanumeric code. Issued by the Income Tax Department under the aegis of CBDT, it helps to identify Indian Income Taxpayers and is mandatory for Income Tax returns, tax deduction, opening of new bank account, high value transactions, and bank deposits above Rs 50,000 etc.

Example – AAECC6548C where the first five characters are alphabets ranging from A to Z, next four are numerals and last is again alphabetic.

TAN – stands for Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number. It is a 10 character alphanumeric code and is issued to person’s requisite to TDS or TCS under Income Tax Act, 1961. Without it, TDS/ TCS payment challans are not accepted by the banks.

Example – PDES03028F where the first four characters are alphabets in which first 4 characters represent the city or state and 4th character is the name of the deductor, next five characters are numerals and last is an alphabet.

UAN- stands for Universal Account Number. It is a 12 digit code generated by Employees Provident Fund Organisation or EPFO for PF contributing members. The UAN allows portability of PF accounts to claim or withdrawal of EPF balance thus acting as an umbrella for the multiple Member Ids allotted to an individual by different establishments.

PRAN – stands for Permanent Retirement Account Number. It is a 12 digit unique code issued to the state and central employees to receive their pension throughout life under the National Pension System or NPS regulated by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).

ISIN– stands for International Securities Identification Number. ISIN is a 12 character alphanumeric code developed by the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) to specific securities like equity stocks, preference shares, bonds etc. It is basically an international numbering system.

Example – MXP740451010 where the first two digits are country code, next nine digits denote unique identification security specific code and the last character is verifying/checking digit.

LEI – stands for Legal Entity Identifier. LEI is a 20 digit alphanumeric code developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It is an important measure to improve the quality and accuracy of financial data systems for better risk management

MMID – stands for Mobile Money Identifier (MMID). It is a 7 digit code issued by the bank to mobile banking registered customers for availing IMPS services. Different accounts have different MMIDs which can be linked to a single registered mobile number.

Example- 7893456 where the first four digits denote the bank of the user and next three digits identify the user account.

Also you can go through the details of IMPS.

AADHAR– AADHAR is a 12-digit code issued to Indian citizens by the Government of India. It is the biometric ID system and UIDAI or The Unique Identification Authority of India is responsible for managing Aadhaar numbers and Aadhaar identification cards.

Example – 4444 3333 2222

List of Important Codes in Banking and Financial Sector

Given below is the list of all important codes in Banking and Financial Sector

Code Name	Shortform	No of Digits / characters of codes
Indian Financial System Code	IFSC	11 character alpha numeric code
Permanent Account Number	PAN	10 character alpha numeric code
Society For Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication	SWIFT	8 to 11 character alphabetic code
Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number	TAN	10 character alpha numeric code
Permanent Retirement Account Number	PRAN	12 digit code
Legal Entity Identifier	LEI	20 character alpha numeric code
International Securities Identification Number	ISIN	12 character alpha numeric code
Universal Account Number	UAN	12 digit code
Basic Statistical Returns	BSR	7 digit code
Mobile Money Identifier	MMID	7 digit code
Magnetic Ink Character Recognition	MICR	9 digit code
AADHAR	AADHAR	12 digit code