The Indian Financial System Code (IFS Code or IFSC) is an
alphanumeric code
Alphanumericals or alphanumeric characters are any collection of number characters and letters in a certain language. Sometimes such characters may be mistaken one for the other.
Merriam-Webster suggests that the term "alphanumeric" may often ...
that facilitates
electronic funds transfer
Electronic funds transfer (EFT) is the transfer of money from one bank account to another, either within a single financial institution or across multiple institutions, via computer-based systems.
The funds transfer process generally consists ...
in India. A code uniquely identifies each bank branch participating in the three main
Payment and settlement systems in India
A payment is the tender of something of value, such as money or its equivalent, by one party (such as a person or company) to another in exchange for goods or services provided by them, or to fulfill a legal obligation or philanthropy desire. ...
: the
National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT),
Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and
Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) systems.
Format
The IFSC is an 11-character code with the first four
alphabetic
An alphabet is a standard set of letters written to represent particular sounds in a spoken language. Specifically, letters largely correspond to phonemes as the smallest sound segments that can distinguish one word from another in a given ...
characters representing the bank name, and the last six characters (usually numeric, but can be alphabetic) representing the branch. The fifth character is 0 (zero) and reserved for future use. Bank IFS Code is used by the NEFT & RTGS systems to route the messages to the destination banks/branches.
The format of the IFS Code is shown below.
Lists of IFS Codes
Bank-wise lists of IFS Codes are available with all the bank-branches participating in inter bank electronic funds transfer. A list of bank-branches participating in NEFT/RTGS and their IFS Code is available on the website of the
Reserve Bank of India
Reserve Bank of India, abbreviated as RBI, is the central bank of the Republic of India, and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system and Indian rupee, Indian currency. Owned by the Ministry of Finance (India), Min ...
.
National Electronic Funds Transfer
Reserve Bank of India All the banks have also been advised to print the IFS code of the branch on cheque
A cheque (or check in American English) is a document that orders a bank, building society, or credit union, to pay a specific amount of money from a person's account to the person in whose name the cheque has been issued. The person writing ...
s issued by branches to their customers.
See also
* List of financial regulatory authorities by country
In this list of financial regulatory and supervisory authorities, central banks are only listed where they act as direct supervisors of individual financial firms, and competition authorities and takeover panels are not listed unless they are set ...
References
* https://www.npci.org.in/national-automated-clearing-live-members-1
* https://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/RTGS/DOCs/RTGEB0815.xlsx
* https://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/content/docs/68774.xlsx
External links
Find IFSC of Banks' Branches
on Reserve Bank of India's Website
List of NEFT Enabled Bank Branches
(with IFSC) on Reserve Bank of India's Website
{{Banking in India
Banking in India
Real-time gross settlement
E-commerce in India
Financial routing standards
Standards of India