Browse banks, EMIs, PSPs and other organizations in Germany that hold a SWIFT/BIC code. See correspondent banking data and review the country's payment requirements.
Germany's currency is the euro (EUR), a freely floating, fully convertible reserve currency. Germany is a founding member of the euro area, which introduced the euro in 1999, and monetary policy is set by the European Central Bank and implemented domestically by the Deutsche Bundesbank. There are no exchange or capital controls: under EU single-market rules residents and non-residents may hold, buy and transfer any currency without approval, and Germany accepted IMF Article VIII obligations in 1961. Cross-border payments between residents and non-residents of EUR 50,000 or more carry a statistical report to the Bundesbank (raised from EUR 12,500 at the start of 2025), but this is a reporting formality, not an approval, and it does not delay the payment. Germany uses IBAN: a German IBAN is 22 characters, made up of DE, two check digits, the eight-digit Bankleitzahl (BLZ) bank code, and a ten-digit account number. As a Eurozone and SEPA member, and the largest SEPA country by volume, euro credit transfers and direct debits to and from Germany run on SEPA rails at the same price as domestic payments.
Inbound cross-border payments arrive by SWIFT (MT103 or the ISO 20022 MX equivalent) and then settle domestically. Large-value euro payments settle in central bank money through TARGET (T2), the Eurosystem real-time gross settlement system that the Bundesbank helps operate; retail euro flows clear through the Bundesbank's RPS/SEPA-Clearer and pan-European SEPA infrastructure. SEPA Instant credit transfers run around the clock, complete within seconds and carry up to EUR 100,000, and since 2025 every euro-area payment provider must both send and receive them. Since 9 October 2025 those providers must also run a free Verification of Payee check, matching the beneficiary name against the IBAN before a SEPA transfer is released, so an accurate beneficiary name now matters as much as the account number. To credit a beneficiary without delay an instruction typically needs:
Germany has no purpose-of-payment code requirement for cross-border transfers, and there are no domestic clearing codes for international routing, so the SWIFT BIC is the key routing identifier and the IBAN identifies the account. Messaging is now fully ISO 20022: T2 migrated in 2023 and the SWIFT cross-border CBPR+ coexistence period closed in November 2025. Using a beneficiary's initials instead of the full registered name is a common cause of delay.
On compliance, Germany is a founding FATF member and sits on neither the FATF grey nor black list; its 2022 mutual evaluation found strong technical compliance, with the main challenges around the effectiveness of supervision spread across sixteen federal states, and it reports under routine follow-up. Germany is an OECD CRS/AEOI jurisdiction and has exchanged financial-account information automatically since 2017. Anti-money-laundering rules rest on the Geldwaeschegesetz (GwG), supervised by BaFin for banks alongside the ECB for the largest institutions, with suspicious transactions reported through the goAML portal to the financial intelligence unit, the Zentralstelle fuer Finanztransaktionsuntersuchungen, which sits within the customs administration. Germany maintains no unilateral sanctions list: EU restrictive measures apply directly alongside UN sanctions, enforced by the Bundesbank, BaFin and the export-control office BAFA, so screen counterparties before you pay. From July 2027 a single EU anti-money-laundering rulebook applies, and the EU's new Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA), based in Frankfurt, has been operational since 2025 ahead of taking on direct supervision of selected high-risk institutions from 2028.
Cryptoassets are legal in Germany and regulated under the EU MiCAR framework, with BaFin as the national competent authority and the Kryptomaerkteaufsichtsgesetz (KMAG) as the accompanying national law. Crypto-asset service providers must hold a CASP licence; the German transitional regime for previously regulated providers closed at the end of 2025, earlier than the EU-wide backstop, so services now require full authorisation. Banks may offer crypto custody and trading with the appropriate licence. Crypto is not legal tender, the euro remains the sole legal tender, and gains are taxed under German income-tax rules. A central bank digital currency, the digital euro, is a European Central Bank project: its preparation phase completed in October 2025 and the enabling EU legislation is still moving through the legislative process, with a possible pilot in 2027 and earliest issuance around 2029; no decision to issue it has been taken.
Banks, EMIs, PSPs and other organizations with an assigned BIC. Click any entry for SWIFT/BIC details, correspondent banking data and supported currencies.
Yes. Germany uses IBAN, and a German IBAN is 22 characters: DE, two check digits, the eight-digit Bankleitzahl (BLZ) bank code, and a ten-digit account number. IBAN has been required for euro payments since 2016. For an inbound SWIFT payment you need the beneficiary's IBAN and the beneficiary bank's SWIFT BIC; there are no separate domestic clearing codes for cross-border routing.
No. Germany is a founding FATF member and is on neither the FATF grey list (jurisdictions under increased monitoring) nor the black list as of 2026. Its 2022 mutual evaluation found strong technical compliance, with effectiveness improvements tracked under routine follow-up, and the next evaluation is expected around the end of the decade.
Euro payments reach Germany over SEPA: SEPA Credit Transfers and SEPA Instant Credit Transfers move euro to and from German accounts at the same cost as domestic transfers, with instant transfers settling within seconds around the clock up to EUR 100,000. Payments from outside the euro area arrive by SWIFT and settle domestically, with large values passing through the Eurosystem's TARGET (T2) system. To route funds you need the beneficiary's IBAN and the beneficiary bank's SWIFT BIC, plus the full name and address of both the ordering and beneficiary customers; since October 2025 the beneficiary name is also checked against the IBAN before a euro transfer is released.
Yes. Germany is an OECD Common Reporting Standard (CRS) / Automatic Exchange of Information jurisdiction and has exchanged financial-account information automatically since 2017. Reporting financial institutions identify accounts held by tax residents of other participating jurisdictions and report them to the German tax authorities for annual exchange.
Cryptoassets are legal in Germany and regulated under the EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR), with BaFin as the national competent authority and the Kryptomaerkteaufsichtsgesetz (KMAG) as the accompanying national law. Crypto-asset service providers must hold a CASP licence; the German transitional regime for previously regulated providers closed at the end of 2025, so services now require full authorisation, and banks may offer crypto custody and trading with the appropriate licence. Crypto is not legal tender, the euro remains the sole legal tender, and gains are taxed under German income-tax rules. Separately, the digital euro, a possible central bank digital currency, is a European Central Bank project whose preparation phase completed in October 2025; the enabling EU legislation is still in progress and no decision to issue it has been taken.
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