Browse banks, EMIs, PSPs and other organizations in Great Britain that hold a SWIFT/BIC code. See correspondent banking data and review the country's payment requirements.
The UK's currency is the pound sterling (GBP), a freely floating, fully convertible major reserve currency managed by the Bank of England. There are no exchange controls and the capital account is fully open: residents and non-residents may hold, buy and transfer any currency without restriction or approval, though cash of GBP 10,000 or more carried across the border must be declared to HMRC. The UK uses IBAN: a UK IBAN is 22 characters, made up of GB, two check digits, a four-letter bank code, the six-digit sort code, and the eight-digit account number. The sort code identifies the bank and branch and drives domestic routing. Despite leaving the EU, the UK stays within the SEPA geographical scheme, so euro credit transfers to and from the UK still run on SEPA rails, although UK-to-EU payments now count as international rather than domestic.
Inbound cross-border payments arrive by SWIFT (MT103 or the ISO 20022 MX equivalent) and then settle domestically through one of the UK's payment systems: CHAPS for same-day high-value sterling, Faster Payments for near-instant retail transfers up to GBP 1 million around the clock, and Bacs for batched direct credits and debits. To credit a beneficiary without delay, an instruction typically needs:
The UK is phasing in ISO 20022 enhanced-data rules on CHAPS: purpose codes and LEIs are already required for inter-bank and property payments, and from November 2026 CHAPS will reject fully unstructured address data, so structured beneficiary details are worth adopting now.
On compliance, the UK is a founding FATF member and sits on neither the FATF grey nor black list; its 2018 mutual evaluation found a well-developed regime, and it assumed the two-year FATF Presidency in July 2026. It is an early-adopter OECD CRS/AEOI jurisdiction and has exchanged financial-account information automatically since 2017. Anti-money-laundering rules rest on the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the 2017 Money Laundering Regulations, supervised by the FCA for financial-services firms, with suspicious activity reported to the UK Financial Intelligence Unit inside the National Crime Agency. The UK runs its own autonomous sanctions regime under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 and implements UN measures, and since January 2026 every designation sits on a single UK Sanctions List, so screen counterparties against it before you pay.
Cryptoassets are legal in the UK and treated as property, though they are not legal tender and are little used for everyday payment. Firms carrying on cryptoasset business must currently register with the FCA for anti-money-laundering purposes, and a full FCA authorisation regime under the Financial Services and Markets Act commences on 25 October 2027, bringing exchanges, custody, stablecoin issuance and staking inside the regulatory perimeter. A central bank digital currency, the digital pound, remains in its design phase, with no decision yet taken on whether to proceed.
Banks, EMIs, PSPs and other organizations with an assigned BIC. Click any entry for SWIFT/BIC details, correspondent banking data and supported currencies.
Yes. The UK uses IBAN for international payments. A UK IBAN is 22 characters: the country code GB, two check digits, a four-letter bank code, the six-digit sort code, and the eight-digit account number. The sort code identifies the bank and branch, and for an inbound SWIFT payment you need the beneficiary's IBAN and the beneficiary bank's SWIFT BIC.
No. The UK is a founding member of the FATF and is on neither the FATF grey list (jurisdictions under increased monitoring) nor the black list. Its 2018 mutual evaluation found a well-developed AML/CFT regime, and the UK assumed the rotating FATF Presidency, a two-year term, in July 2026.
Yes. Although the UK has left the EU, it remains within the SEPA geographical scheme, so euro credit transfers and direct debits to and from UK accounts still run on SEPA rails. In practice UK-to-EU payments are now treated as international rather than domestic, so charging and information requirements can differ from intra-EU transfers.
Yes. The UK is an early-adopter OECD Common Reporting Standard (CRS) jurisdiction and has exchanged financial-account information automatically under CRS/AEOI since 2017. UK financial institutions identify and report accounts held by tax residents of other participating jurisdictions to HMRC.
Cryptoassets are legal in the UK and treated as property under English law, but they are not legal tender and are little used for everyday payment. Firms carrying on cryptoasset activities must currently register with the FCA for anti-money-laundering purposes, and crypto marketing to UK consumers must be approved by an FCA-authorised firm and carry risk warnings. A full FCA authorisation regime under the Financial Services and Markets Act, covering exchanges, custody, dealing, stablecoin issuance and staking, was made in 2026 and commences on 25 October 2027. Separately, the Bank of England is still in the design phase for a possible central bank digital currency, the digital pound, with no decision yet taken on whether to launch it.
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