Is It True That Thai Banks Do Not Use IBAN Codes ?

[paddypower]

My buddy in Romania wants me to reserve a bungalow for him for 2 months. I will pay the deposit, its not a big issue. But I am curious to know if what he says is true. His Romanian bank will not use the SWIFT system, they want to use the IBAN coding. I believe that I read somewhere that SCB does not use the IBAN system., just the SWIFT system.  Thanks

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by metisdead
ALL CAPS removed from topic title.

[KhunBENQ]

Thai banks don't use IBAN.

IBAN coverage is quite limited on global scale.

A bank that can't do a SWIFT transfer? (BIC/SWIFT)
Bad luck or incompetent.

Edited December 3, 2022 by KhunBENQ

[KhunBENQ]

From the WiKI.

 

[Lemsta69]

is Wise an option? a quick search suggests they support Romania.

[KhunBENQ]

7 minutes ago, Lemsta69 said:

is Wise an option? a quick search suggests they support Romania.

If the friend wants to stay for 2 months it's a an option to think about.

 

[eisfeld]

A bank not wanting to use SWIFT? Makes no sense. The bank wouldn't care if the transfer goes over SWIFT or SEPA/IBAN. SWIFT costs more but the customers are paying that. The bank should know they can't use IBAN to transfer to Thai banks. Either the bank is extraordinarily incompetent or something is up.

 

As mentioned, Wise could also be used as a cheaper alternative. There he can fund with EUR via SEPA transfer. But I'd be a bit cautious paying for him lest you risk sitting on the costs. Why risk it? It's not like all the property is booked out.

[MJCM]

31 minutes ago, paddypower said:

His Romanian bank will not use the SWIFT system,

Is his Bank one of these?

 

https://bank.codes/swift-code/romania/

 

If so, then they could send money via Swift, and I do think that MOST of the World Banks are connected to this system.

[eisfeld]

20 minutes ago, MJCM said:

Is his Bank one of these?

 

https://bank.codes/swift-code/romania/

 

If so, then they could send money via Swift, and I do think that MOST of the World Banks are connected to this system.

Even if they are not connect to SWIFT directly they can use corresponding banks to send the money.

[MJCM]

2 minutes ago, eisfeld said:

Even if they are not connect to SWIFT directly they can use corresponding banks to send the money.

Thx, so it's just unwillingness from the Bank to not send via Swift.

 

In whole honesty this was the first time ever I heard about a Bank not doing swift or as @KhunBENQ accurately put it

 

54 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

Bad luck or incompetent.

 

[Doctor Tom]

They don't use SWIFT because of the corrupt nature of their banking system.  They are excluded from many international structures and processes because of that fact 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/overseas-business-risk-romania/overseas-business-risk-romania--2

 

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/government-and-opposition/article/abs/politics-of-banking-in-romania-soft-loans-looting-and-cardboard-billionaires/A96A74D01FAE17236C3A2D2307F691B4

Edited December 3, 2022 by Doctor Tom

[sandyf]

49 minutes ago, paddypower said:

His Romanian bank will not use the SWIFT system, they want to use the IBAN coding. I believe that I read somewhere that SCB does not use the IBAN system., just the SWIFT system. 

I think someone has their wires crossed somewhere along the way, either your friend or someone at the bank.

I am from the UK and they use IBAN and I send money to Thailand all the time. The transaction arrives in Thailand using IBAN codes. The IBAN code is a combination of the bank SWIFT No, sort code and account number, so the 2 systems can merge seamlessly.

As far as his bank is concerned it should just be an international transfer.

 

[Lemsta69]

19 minutes ago, MJCM said:

Thx, so it's just unwillingness from the Bank to not send via Swift.

 

In whole honesty this was the first time ever I heard about a Bank not doing swift or as @KhunBENQ accurately put it

 

 

ING Australia no longer offers outgoing international transfers. I've no idea why this is the case but I was quite surprised when I read about it prior to making my move to Thailand last year. 

 

Perhaps this Romanian bank doesn't want all the expense and regulatory bother? But my money's on incompetence ????

[fdsa]

IBAN is a bank code used within Europe and friends such as UAE, that make transfers using "SEPA" system. It is similar to "SWIFT" but different and incompatible.

Thai banks do not use SEPA transfers, only SWIFT.

- so no IBAN codes.

[bubblegum]

Actually when using SWIFT at times your bank Swift code is transferred to an IBAN code.

I really don't understand why European banks had to go to IBAN.  

[eisfeld]

31 minutes ago, bubblegum said:

Actually when using SWIFT at times your bank Swift code is transferred to an IBAN code.

I really don't understand why European banks had to go to IBAN.  

You can't translate a SWIFT code to an IBAN as the IBAN has more information in it. The other way is possible though.

 

SEPA is imho superior to SWIFT as it's usually faster and much cheaper. SWIFT can be absurdly expensive and you sometimes don't even know the full costs when initiating a wire transfer. SEPA supports also features like direct debits which SWIFT can not. IBAN is a much better banking number as it contains all necessary information like the actual account number while a SWIFT/BIC code only contains info as to which country/bank/branch the transfer is destined for. Also has checksum digits so typos can be detected.

[HampiK]

16 hours ago, sandyf said:

I think someone has their wires crossed somewhere along the way, either your friend or someone at the bank.

I am from the UK and they use IBAN and I send money to Thailand all the time. The transaction arrives in Thailand using IBAN codes. The IBAN code is a combination of the bank SWIFT No, sort code and account number, so the 2 systems can merge seamlessly.

As far as his bank is concerned it should just be an international transfer.

 

I think you only put a SWIFT code into the IBAN field...Earlier my bank has this system in case of swift put the swift code into the IBAN field.. but this not meant, that the 2 system were compatible. it's still 2 different systems

[Phnom Penh Trader]

IBAN is an acronym for International Bank Account Number.

[nigelforbes]

17 hours ago, MJCM said:

Thx, so it's just unwillingness from the Bank to not send via Swift.

 

In whole honesty this was the first time ever I heard about a Bank not doing swift or as @KhunBENQ accurately put it

 

 

Not necessarily. The Romanian bank would need to be a member of SWIFT AND have a SWIFT relationship with the Thai bank. If it doesn't have the former, there are no SWIFT options. If it doesn't have the latter, it can use a correspondent bank (CB) to make the SWIFT transfer, as long the CB has the SWIFT relationship.

[nigelforbes]

https://www.iban.com/glossary

 

Interesting....this might be settlement related, ie, how the interbank transfer is settled between the banks. Or it more probably has to do with Thai systems and the field lengths which wouldn't allow IBAN field length.

Edited December 4, 2022 by nigelforbes

[Neeranam]

Romanian banks are more advanced that the rest of the world. 

 

Blockchain is the way to transfer money -  SWIFT technology is 50 years old!   

 

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/national-bank-romania-grants-green-162821312.html

https://elrond.com/blog/romanian-central-bank-approves-twispay-acquisition/

[paddypower]

32 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

Romanian banks are more advanced that the rest of the world. 

 

Blockchain is the way to transfer money -  SWIFT technology is 50 years old!   

 

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/national-bank-romania-grants-green-162821312.html

https://elrond.com/blog/romanian-central-bank-approves-twispay-acquisition/

Good suggestion, I have a crypto wallet.

 

I will go the old fashioned way. (repay me when you arrive).  It is only 10k. PLus, if we delay, we could lose the bungalow which he specified he wants for the family, it is away from the road and close to the beach.  but thanks for the original suggestion. Interestingly, I do not get a very good fx rate when I transfer from Canada to Thailand, using SWIFT,.

[eisfeld]

6 hours ago, HampiK said:

I think you only put a SWIFT code into the IBAN field...Earlier my bank has this system in case of swift put the swift code into the IBAN field.. but this not meant, that the 2 system were compatible. it's still 2 different systems

I don't understand how you can have an input form with an IBAN field where you stick in instead the SWIFT code and it can still do the transfer. Is there another field for account number? Because SWIFT code alone is not enough to send a wire transfer. So the form would have to have two account number inputs. IBAN plus just account number? Seems weird and confusing.

[HampiK]

2 minutes ago, eisfeld said:

I don't understand how you can have an input form with an IBAN field where you stick in instead the SWIFT code and it can still do the transfer. Is there another field for account number? Because SWIFT code alone is not enough to send a wire transfer. So the form would have to have two account number inputs. IBAN plus just account number? Seems weird and confusing.

As this is now about 2 years since, my bank changed the input form, so I am now not 100% sure anymore. But there were I think about 3 fields which were miss used for a swift transfer at that time. I am happy that the bank changed it for less confusion.

[sandyf]

8 hours ago, HampiK said:

I think you only put a SWIFT code into the IBAN field...Earlier my bank has this system in case of swift put the swift code into the IBAN field.. but this not meant, that the 2 system were compatible. it's still 2 different systems

Of course they are compatible, My IBAN bank with my IBAN account code sends money to my SWIFT bank and SWIFT account code without any intermediary bank, quite often within a few hours, for an exorbitant fee of £5.

How incompatatible is that?

[sandyf]

22 hours ago, eisfeld said:

IBAN is a much better banking number as it contains all necessary information like the actual account number while a SWIFT/BIC code only contains info as to which country/bank/branch the transfer is destined for. Also has checksum digits so typos can be detected.

Exactly. Here in Thailand retail banking does not even have the branch, they only use 8 character SWIFT codes, only retail banking uses the 11 character SWIFT codes.

 

SWIFT/IBAN works quite well both ways. I sent some money from my Thai account to my UK bank and by the time I got home an hour later it was in my UK account.