Korea SWIFT Codes & BIC Directory

South Korea SWIFT/BIC bank directory

South Korean BICs use the KR country block. The table lists the major banks in the dataset with their registered Seoul office, head-office BIC, and primary eleven-character form; the beneficiary's bank must provide any branch suffix or correspondent instruction.

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 South Korea BICs before you send

South Korea generally does not use IBANs for domestic accounts. A foreign sender typically needs the Korean account number, bank name, branch or head-office address, beneficiary name, phone/address, BIC, currency, and a remittance purpose. The bank may request a resident or business identifier for compliance.

Domestic Korean bank codes and branch numbers are not substitutes for SWIFT. The BIC's KR country block identifies the legal entity, while the local account and branch details identify the customer account inside Korea.

Seoul appears in many head-office records because major banks centralise international payments there, but an account in Busan, Incheon, or another city can still use a Seoul head-office BIC. Confirm the exact receiving instructions rather than guessing from the account city.

How to read the South Korea 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 South Korea 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 an international wire to South Korea

Ask the beneficiary for a current English payment certificate, including the Korean bank's legal name, BIC, account number, branch address, beneficiary name, and purpose. Confirm whether the payment is a personal remittance, salary, trade invoice, or investment.

1. Choose an international SWIFT transfer and enter the confirmed KR receiver BIC.
2. Enter the Korean account number and beneficiary legal name exactly; do not substitute a domestic bank code for the BIC.
3. Provide branch and bank address information in the separate fields requested by the sending bank.
4. Confirm currency, correspondent, charge option, and any Korean purpose or tax information.
5. Check the beneficiary's phone/address and the expected value date before submitting.
6. Keep the SWIFT reference and request a trace if the receiving bank has not credited the account within the quoted window.

Common South Korea SWIFT mistakes

Timing, tracing, and beneficiary checks

Time-zone differences, Korean holidays, correspondent cut-offs, and compliance review can affect delivery even when the BIC is correct.

A useful trace includes the account number, beneficiary name, amount, currency, value date, and message reference. Give it to the receiving bank rather than sending a duplicate.

For recurring payments, store a current bank certificate and independently confirm requests to change the beneficiary account or BIC.

A final South Korea 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.