Recently, I have been dealing with virtual cards and frequently need to perform operations such as deposits and transfers. During this process, I inevitably come across some financial terms such as SEPA, SWIFT, IBAN, and BIN. At first, I had no idea what these terms meant and felt very confused. However, through trial and error and learning, I now have a basic understanding of them and would like to share it with you.

IBAN

IBAN, which stands for International Bank Account Number, is an internationally standardized system used to identify bank accounts. When making international remittances or transfers, IBAN allows us to clearly identify an account and its associated bank and country.

IBAN is like the "international version" of your bank account. You can think of IBAN as an extended version of your bank account. In many countries and regions, especially in Europe, when you make a bank transfer, you need to provide the IBAN instead of your basic bank account number.

EEA - European Economic Area

EEA stands for European Economic Area. The European Economic Area consists of all the member states of the European Union (EU) as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. Its goal is to establish a fully open and barrier-free single market among these countries.

In general, the European Economic Area is a shared market that allows for the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital between member states, creating more opportunities for everyone.

SEPA - Single Euro Payments Area

SEPA stands for Single Euro Payments Area. It is a payment system established by the European banking industry with the aim of simplifying bank transfers within the euro area. The goal of SEPA is to make all payment services in the euro area (including transfers, direct debits, and credit card payments) as simple as local payments.

SEPA mainly covers countries in the euro area, but it also includes some European countries outside the euro area. In general, SEPA makes bank transfers within Europe easier and more efficient.

When making a transfer, you may see SEPA as the transfer type. This transfer method is convenient, fast, and has low fees, but it is limited to certain European regions.

BIC/SWIFT

BIC/SWIFT stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. It is a global banking communication network. SWIFT codes (also known as BIC codes) are used to uniquely identify banks and financial institutions worldwide.

Through a BIC/SWIFT code, you can usually obtain the following information:

• Bank/Financial institution: The first four characters represent the code of the bank or financial institution.
• Country: The next two characters represent the country code where the bank or financial institution is located.
• Location code: The following two characters represent the code of the city or region where the bank or financial institution is located.
• Branch code: (This is optional) The last three characters represent the specific branch of the bank or financial institution. If these three characters are not provided, the "BIC/SWIFT code" will be 8 characters.

Recommended BIC/SWIFT code lookup website: https://www.myswiftcodes.com/

BIN - Bank Identification Number

BIN stands for Bank Identification Number, which is now more commonly referred to as Issuer Identification Number (IIN). It is a numerical code used to identify the issuing bank of a credit or debit card, typically the first 6 digits of the card number.

By inputting the first 6 or 8 digits of a card number, we can obtain the following information:

• Card type: For example, whether it is a credit card, debit card, or prepaid card.
• Card brand: For example, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, etc.
• Issuing bank: BIN can help determine the specific bank that issued the card.
• Country of the issuing institution: BIN can provide information about the country where the issuing bank is located.
• Card level: For example, standard card, gold card, platinum card, etc.

Recommended BIN lookup website: https://www.freebinchecker.com/

Summary of Experience:

• For transfers within the European Economic Area, SEPA is generally used. This method has low fees and fast processing.
• For international transfers, SWIFT is usually used. This method is slower and has higher fees.
• Some cross-border financial service providers may not provide detailed information, such as specific bank names and locations. In this case, we can use the provided BIC/SWIFT code to look up the information.
• The virtual or physical cards assigned to you by service providers can be used to query information such as the country and financial institution using the BIN (usually the first 6 digits of the card number).