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Field 57A is the Account With Institution — the beneficiary's bank. A correct BIC in this field is one of the most important factors in on-time payment delivery. Look up any BIC free →
Format: BIC (8 or 11 characters), optionally preceded by a party identifier (the account at the beneficiary bank, if it needs to be specified at the institutional level). Variants 57B (clearing code and address), 57C (account number at the receiver), and 57D (free-format name and address) also exist. Field 57A (BIC) is the preferred variant in all modern MT103 implementations because it unambiguously identifies the beneficiary's bank and enables straight-through processing at every preceding correspondent without any manual routing decisions.
Field 57 is the "Account With Institution" — the bank that holds the beneficiary's account and will perform the final credit. This is distinct from field 59 (Beneficiary Customer), which follows immediately and identifies the specific account holder at that bank. The relationship is: field 57 tells the SWIFT network "deliver to this bank", and field 59 tells that bank "credit this specific account." Together, fields 57 and 59 define the complete end-point of the payment.
Getting field 57A wrong is one of the most common causes of payment failure. Common errors: (1) Providing a head-office BIC (e.g. 8 characters) when the branch-specific BIC (11 characters) is required — most major banks accept both forms, but some route payments differently by branch code; (2) Providing the wrong BIC altogether — the payment is delivered to an unintended bank; (3) Providing an 8-character BIC when a payment is intended for a SEPA beneficiary bank that uses different routing at the branch level. Always verify the BIC at /swift-codes before sending.
For SEPA payments (intra-EEA credit transfers), the BIC in field 57A can in theory be derived from the IBAN in field 59, and SEPA rules allow field 57A to be omitted on certain SEPA Credit Transfer schemes. However, for non-SEPA SWIFT payments, field 57A must always be present — correspondent banks cannot route the payment without knowing the beneficiary bank's BIC. Omitting field 57A on a non-SEPA SWIFT payment will cause misrouting or manual intervention at an intermediary.
In ISO 20022 pacs.008, the beneficiary bank is represented by the CdtrAgt (Creditor Agent) element, which contains a FinInstnId (Financial Institution Identification) with BICFI (BIC), optionally a ClrSysMmbId (clearing system member ID, e.g. ABA routing number or Sort Code), Nm (name), and PstlAdr (postal address). The richer pacs.008 structure allows the creditor agent to be identified by multiple methods simultaneously — BIC plus ABA routing number, for example — giving more routing options than the single-value MT103 field 57.
| Example value | :57A:BENEBNK4XXX |
|---|---|
| Valid characters / format | BIC |
| Required on MT103 | Mandatory |
| Required on MT202 | Mandatory |
| Required on pacs.008 | Mandatory |
| Notes | Account-with institution (beneficiary bank). |
The payment may be delivered to an unintended bank (if the BIC is valid but wrong) or rejected mid-chain (if the BIC is invalid or unreachable). Either outcome requires a return or recall process that can take 1–10 business days. Always verify the BIC at /swift-codes or directly with the beneficiary before sending.
The 8-character BIC identifies the bank's primary/head office. An 11-character BIC includes a 3-character branch suffix (e.g. "XXX" = head office, or a specific branch code). For SWIFT routing purposes, 8-character and 11-character BICs for the same primary office are equivalent — you can safely append XXX to an 8-character BIC to get the 11-character form.
Search Ohmyfin's free BIC directory at /swift-codes. You can search by bank name, city, or country. The directory covers over 8,000 active registered BICs. Alternatively, ask the beneficiary to check their bank's official website under "international payments" or "SWIFT/BIC code." Banks are required to disclose their BIC for international payment purposes.
Field 57 identifies the institution (the bank). The account number within that institution is in field 59 (Beneficiary Customer). The two-field design reflects the routing logic: field 57 routes the SWIFT message to the right bank, and field 59 routes the credit to the right account within that bank.
Field 56A (Intermediary Institution) is an intermediate correspondent bank in the chain — it receives the payment and forwards it to the next bank. Field 57A (Account With Institution) is the final destination bank where the beneficiary holds their account. Payments may or may not have a field 56A, but will almost always have a field 57A.
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