The ISO 9362 directory gained 93 head office BIC codes dated 5 to 19 September 2026, in 44 countries. Sixteen are in the United States, ten in the United Kingdom and five in the United Arab Emirates. Twenty-two of the 93 belong to companies the register classes as non-financial, among them SK hynix, Samsung Bioepis and Sime Darby. Over the same month 26 head office codes were withdrawn.
A BIC is the eight-character code that identifies an institution in cross-border payment messages: four characters for the institution, two for the country, two for the location. A head office code is a BIC of the institution's own. A branch code adds three characters under an existing BIC, usually for a department or a desk. September also brought 132 new branch codes. They are a different event and are left out of everything below.
The directory is also wider than banks. It holds asset managers, brokers, payment firms and corporates, so 93 new codes are not 93 new banks.
New head office BIC codes by country, September 2026: the ten largest
United States: 16 new, 6 withdrawn
United Kingdom: 10 new, 3 withdrawn
United Arab Emirates: 5 new, none withdrawn
Canada: 4 new, none withdrawn
Netherlands: 4 new, 2 withdrawn
Germany: 3 new, 1 withdrawn
Hong Kong: 3 new, 1 withdrawn
Italy: 3 new, none withdrawn
South Korea: 3 new, none withdrawn
Malta: 3 new, 1 withdrawn
These ten countries hold 54 of the 93. The other 39 are spread over 34 countries, one or two each. The United States and the United Kingdom together took 28% of the month's new head office codes. That is their usual weight: 33% of the codes registered in August and 28% of those registered in July.
Ten of the sixteen American codes have "bank", "credit union" or "trust company" in their registered name, with addresses from Vermont and New Hampshire to Idaho and Washington state. Northfield Savings Bank in Vermont (NOTNUS32) and FourLeaf Federal Credit Union in New York (FFRNUS32) are two of them.
Institutions are told apart by the first four characters of the code. By that measure 73 of the 93 codes went to institutions that were not in the directory before, 12 to institutions taking their first code in a country, and 8 were a further code in a country where the institution already had one.
Who the 93 new head office codes went to
Institutions that were not in the directory before: 73
Institutions taking their first code in a country: 12
A further code in a country where the institution already had one: 8
The 12 first codes in a new country include three for Revolut, in Colombia (REVOCOBB), Greece (REVOGRG2) and the United Arab Emirates (REVOAEAA). A code was created for CACEIS Bank Singapore Branch (ISAESGSG), and one in Riyadh for State Street Saudi Arabia Financial Solutions (SBOSSARI). State Street announced in June 2026 that this subsidiary had obtained a licence from the Saudi Capital Market Authority that lets it offer fund administration in the country.
The register marks 22 of the 93 as non-financial institutions: companies that hold a BIC themselves, which a corporate treasury needs to exchange payment messages with its banks under its own name. That is 24% of the month, against 23% in August and 31% in July, so about the usual share.
Share of new head office codes registered by non-financial companies
July: 31% (26 of 85)
August: 23% (24 of 104)
September: 24% (22 of 93)
Three of them are Korean and carry the same date, 19 September: SK hynix Inc. (HYXIKR22), SK Gas Co., Ltd. (SSGSKR22) and Samsung Bioepis Co., Ltd. (SBIPKR22). They were the only Korean head office codes of the month. On the same day Sime Darby Holdings Berhad (SDHDMY2S) was registered in Malaysia and Securitas Treasury Ireland (STLDIE2D) in Dublin. Panasonic Holdings Corporation added a code in Japan (PANAJPJ2); Panasonic companies already held codes in seven countries. The register records the code, not the reason, and we found no public statement from any of these companies about it.
Twenty-six head office codes left the directory between 1 September and 1 October, six of them in the United States. A withdrawn code is not a closed institution. Codes go when two firms merge, when a group tidies its codes, or when a company stops holding one. Eight of the 26 belonged to institutions that still have other codes.
The figures come from the public ISO 9362 directory of BIC codes, compared month to month, and cover the codes created on 5, 12 and 19 September 2026. The register activates codes in weekly batches, so we compare shares between months and never totals. Any code can be looked up in the BIC directory.
Correspondent banking data, settlement instructions and payment cost intelligence for cross-border treasury operations.