UK Sortcode

Site usage

The site contains over 500 banks with 26,000 sortcodes.
The top bar contains an alphabetical list of Top 500 clearing houses. For a quick search the side bar contains the main search tool. Enter full or partial sortcode or clearing house to display any available data.

Sortcode Introduction

This guide provides details of the format of the Industry Sortcode Directory(ISCD) data that is publically known as a bank sortcode. The ISCD is maintained and supplied by third parties, on behalf of the banking industry, and the copyright is owned by APACS Administration Limited.
The industry sorting code directory (ISCD) is a database of information about all the bank/building society branches and bank offices that participate in one or more of the UK clearings systems:

UK Clearing systems

BACS: Bulk electronic clearing

CHAPS Sterling: High value, same day sterling payment clearing

CHAPS Euro: High value, same day euro payment clearing

Cheque and Credit Clearing: Cheque clearing for Great Britain & Northern Ireland.

Fields

Each branch or bank office on the ISCD is identified by either a sorting code, BIC (bank identifier code) or both. Some branches have subbranches, also know as non-accounting branches. Subbranches have the same sorting code as the main bank office, but to uniquely identify them they have a two-digit suffix after the sorting code. The suffix is automatically allocated by Voca, and are numbered in sequence starting with 01 for the first subbranch. For example, sorting code 00-00-00 would represent the main bank office, and the first subbank office registered would have the suffix 01.

Clearing requirements

All bank offices participating in any of the following clearings must have a sorting code:

BACS

CHAPS Sterling

C&CCC

Every bank office with a sorting code does not necessarily participate in all these clearings, however, once a sorting code has been issued to a bank office, the same sorting code will be used in all of the clearings. All bank offices participating in the CHAPS Euro service must have a BIC , however not every bank office with a BIC necessarily participates in CHAPS Euro.

Sorting code and BIC allocation

Members have ranges of sorting codes that they can allocate to bank offices. BICS are allocated for international payment services over the SWIFT network. Each record on the ISCD has 82 fields. The 82 fields are grouped into "data groups" according to the clearing/use they relate to. The data groups that make up the 82 fields are:

General - General details about the bank office/branch

BACS - Details of the branch's participation in BACS clearing service

CHAPS Sterling - Details of the branch's participation in CHAPS Sterling clearing service

CHAPS Euro - Details of the branch's participation in CHAPS Euro clearing service

C&CCC - Details of the branch's participation in C&CCC clearing service

Printed information - Details of the branch's requirements for the UK Clearings Directory.