Open Guide-Codes in Banking such as IFSC and SWIFT are used daily in banks for transactions.The introduction of such codes have enabled the user to transfer money from one bank branch to another easily.Here are some notes useful for students of IBPS and UPSC examinations.

1)IFSC(Indian Financial system Code)-Indian Financial System Code is an alpha-numeric code that uniquely identifies a bank branch participating in the NEFT(National Electronic Fund Transfer).It is a eleven digit alpha numeric code where first 4 alpha characters represent the bank and the last six digits represent the bank branch.

ex:ICIC0001206

2)MICR(Magnetic Ink Character Reader)-Magnetic Ink Character Reader is a nine digit numeric code that uniquely identifies a bank branch in Electronic Clearing System.The first three digits represent the city,the middle three digits represent the bank and the last three digits represent the bank branch.

3)SWIFT CODE(Society for Worldwide Interbank financial tele communication)-SWIFT code is particularly used in to identify bank branches in international transfer of money between banks.The swift code consists of 8 or 11 characters.First four characters denote the bank,the next two characters denotes the country code,the seventh and the eighth characters indicate the location code and the last three charcters for bank branch is optional.The headquarters for SWIFT is at La Hulpe,Belgium.

ex:JJJJ KK LL MMM