China SWIFT Codes & BIC Directory

China SWIFT/BIC bank directory

China's mainland BIC directory is useful when an overseas sender needs to distinguish the major state-owned banks, commercial banks, and their registered processing cities. The table shows all 11 curated mainland banks, their head-office BIC, the common eleven-character primary-office form, and the city in the record. A named branch suffix must still come from the receiving bank.

The primary/branch column shows the safe eleven-character primary-office form and, where relevant, a branch-code reminder. A suffix is not inferred from a city or postcode; confirm any named branch BIC with the receiving bank.

Understanding China BICs before you send

Mainland China uses the CN country block in a SWIFT/BIC. The location block often points to Beijing or Shanghai, but it is not a postal routing code and does not prove that a customer account is in that city. Chinese banks can route an incoming payment internally from a central international-payments desk to a provincial branch.

China generally does not use IBANs for domestic bank accounts. An overseas sender normally needs the beneficiary's account number, the beneficiary's name and address, the Chinese bank's BIC, the bank address, currency, and a payment purpose. The sender's bank may also request a correspondent bank for USD, EUR, GBP, or another currency and may apply currency-control or source-of-funds checks.

For ICBC, the mainland primary code is ICBKCNBJ. ICBKCNBJXXX is the eleven-character primary-office form. A branch instruction such as ICBKCNBJBJM may be supplied by a Beijing office, but it is not interchangeable with the eight-character head-office code unless the beneficiary or ICBC confirms it. ICBKSGSG is Singapore: its SG country block identifies a different legal entity and must not be used for a mainland China account.

How to read the China bank table

Read a BIC from left to right. The first four characters identify the bank, the next two identify the country or jurisdiction, and the next two identify a location or processing centre. An optional final three characters identify a branch or department. When the final block is XXX, it is the standard primary-office form rather than a promise that the beneficiary's account is physically at headquarters.

The head-office column in this directory is the eight-character code recorded for the institution. The primary/branch column adds XXX when a form requires eleven characters. That is the safest general conversion because banks commonly accept the primary office and route the payment using the account identifier. A named branch suffix can be more precise, but only the receiving bank can confirm whether it is active for this account and currency.

City is a useful cross-check, not an independent routing key. A bank can centralise international payments in one city while serving customers across the country. It can also publish different BICs for subsidiaries, branches, custody desks, or currency corridors. If a beneficiary's statement differs from this table, use the statement and contact the bank rather than selecting the row that merely looks closest.

These rows identify banks, not accounts. A valid BIC does not prove that an account is open, that a beneficiary name matches, or that a currency can be credited. Account numbers, IBANs where supported, local clearing details, intermediary instructions, and compliance documents remain separate parts of an international payment instruction.

Before and after sending a China payment

Before submitting, compare the beneficiary's current bank certificate with the form: legal name, country block, BIC, account identifier, city, currency, and payment purpose. Check whether the sender's bank asks for an intermediary. For a corporate payment, keep the invoice, contract, tax details, and source-of-funds explanation ready so a compliance team can match the payment without an avoidable repair.

Charges also affect the result. OUR usually asks the sender to cover bank charges, SHA shares them, and BEN deducts them from the beneficiary's amount, although availability varies by bank and currency. Compare the quoted fee, exchange rate, expected net amount, and value date before confirming. A lower fee can mean an intermediary chain or a slower route, so choose based on the beneficiary's required amount and deadline.

After sending, keep the payment reference and wait for the quoted window. If the payment is late, ask the originating bank where the message is: correspondent, repair queue, receiving bank, or returned. Request a SWIFT trace or equivalent message reference and give it to the beneficiary. Do not alter the BIC or send a duplicate until the first payment is resolved; two simultaneous wires create a larger recovery and compliance problem.

How to send money to a bank account in mainland China

The safest China wire starts with a bank-issued payment instruction rather than a search result. Ask the recipient to identify the account-holding bank, the receiving city, the exact account number, the Chinese and English beneficiary name if available, and whether the bank wants a branch BIC or its central incoming-wire BIC.

1. Choose an international wire and enter the mainland receiver BIC, for example ICBKCNBJ for ICBC, exactly as the recipient supplied it.
2. Enter the beneficiary account number and full name. Do not put a Chinese bank code, clearing number, or branch nickname in the BIC field.
3. Enter the bank's city and address from the payment instruction. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen offices can have different internal routing instructions.
4. Select the currency and ask the sender's bank which correspondent it will use. The correspondent may differ between USD, EUR, GBP, and CNY.
5. Add the commercial invoice, family-remittance purpose, or source-of-funds explanation when requested. Missing purpose information can place a legitimate payment into manual review.
6. Review charges, expected value date, and the beneficiary name character by character. Keep the SWIFT reference so the recipient can ask the Chinese bank to trace the incoming message.

Common China SWIFT mistakes

Timing, tracing, and beneficiary checks

China wires can take longer when the payment crosses a weekend or public holiday in either country, when the correspondent is closed, or when the beneficiary must provide additional documentation. The BIC identifies the bank; it does not promise a release time.

For a delayed payment, the sender should request the exact repair or return reason from the originating bank. The recipient can then give the trace reference, account number, amount, and currency to the Chinese bank's international-payments desk.

Before saving a Chinese beneficiary, compare the country block, bank name, city, account number, and purpose instructions. Reconfirm all fields after a supplier changes banks or asks for a last-minute replacement account.

A final China payment checklist

Compare the country block in the BIC with the country where the account is legally held, not merely the country where the bank group has its headquarters. Then compare the bank prefix and location block with the beneficiary's statement. If the name, city, or legal entity differs, pause and ask the receiving bank which instruction is current. This simple comparison catches many cross-border errors before a message reaches an intermediary.

Keep account-level information separate from bank-level information. The BIC identifies the institution, while an IBAN, local account number, branch number, sort code, ABA number, or other clearing field identifies the customer account. A payment form can display several of these fields at once, and copying a value into the wrong field can create an otherwise avoidable reject even when every value is individually valid.

Finally, record the amount, currency, charge option, value date, beneficiary reference, and confirmation number. These details let the sender and recipient distinguish a correspondent delay from a beneficiary-data error. When the bank confirms a correction, update the saved payment instruction and retain the old version for audit purposes. Do not publish or forward a synthetic test BIC as if it were a real account instruction.