Wire Transfer - To Thailand

[Taggart]

I've been sending money to a bank account in Thailand, via wire transfer, at least once a year, for the last twenty years, and have never had a problem like this. The first time was a few days ago, when my bank in farangland said they got a fax saying I needed a 10 digit BNF account number on the form being sent. The person I talked to at my bank didn't know what they were referring to by a BNF number, so we figured it was because there was no Swift Code on the form. Went home and looked up the Beneficiary bank's swift code on the web, and phoned it in to my bank. I get a call a couple of days later, saying there was still a problem. Went in this morning and they said the account number was showing as 12 digits, and the Correspondent bank wants only 10 digits. Explained that that was the way I sent it last time, and there was no problem. The extra two digits at the beginning denote the bank code. Anyhow, to make them happy, dropped the two digit bank code from the form, and now they have a 10 digit number. Hopefully, the money gets there OK.

Anyone else have a similar problem lately?

[keycon]

I've been sending money to a bank account in Thailand, via wire transfer, at least once a year, for the last twenty years, and have never had a problem like this. The first time was a few days ago, when my bank in farangland said they got a fax saying I needed a 10 digit BNF account number on the form being sent. The person I talked to at my bank didn't know what they were referring to by a BNF number, so we figured it was because there was no Swift Code on the form. Went home and looked up the Beneficiary bank's swift code on the web, and phoned it in to my bank. I get a call a couple of days later, saying there was still a problem. Went in this morning and they said the account number was showing as 12 digits, and the Correspondent bank wants only 10 digits. Explained that that was the way I sent it last time, and there was no problem. The extra two digits at the beginning denote the bank code. Anyhow, to make them happy, dropped the two digit bank code from the form, and now they have a 10 digit number. Hopefully, the money gets there OK.

Anyone else have a similar problem lately?

Nope, made a transer from Sing last week, no probs, acct no, bank name (K Bank) couple days was in the account

[stevemiddie]

I've been sending money to a bank account in Thailand, via wire transfer, at least once a year, for the last twenty years, and have never had a problem like this. The first time was a few days ago, when my bank in farangland said they got a fax saying I needed a 10 digit BNF account number on the form being sent. The person I talked to at my bank didn't know what they were referring to by a BNF number, so we figured it was because there was no Swift Code on the form. Went home and looked up the Beneficiary bank's swift code on the web, and phoned it in to my bank. I get a call a couple of days later, saying there was still a problem. Went in this morning and they said the account number was showing as 12 digits, and the Correspondent bank wants only 10 digits. Explained that that was the way I sent it last time, and there was no problem. The extra two digits at the beginning denote the bank code. Anyhow, to make them happy, dropped the two digit bank code from the form, and now they have a 10 digit number. Hopefully, the money gets there OK.

Anyone else have a similar problem lately?

No problems. Most banks use SWIFT which is an agreement between international banks ( kinda like a super agreement between banks by using codes in messages ) Not all banks are members of this.

The BNF is an abbreviation for BENEFICIARY. I note that the banks name may also be "Beneficiary". Do not get confused with the two. The amount of digits COULD vary from bank to bank depending on how many numbers are involved in the customers ( beneficiary ) account .

Can sometimes be replaced by the IBAN ( International Bank account Number ).

Its used to identify the account holders full account details. The IBAN is now a mandatory requirement for banks in the EU since about 2005/2006 to receive funds internationally.

Are you within the EU? The banks in the EU now have to have an additional two digit number to verify that a transaction / bank is valid. This two digit requirement is, I believe, fairly recent which MAY explain why one bank has asked you to drop two digits.

It gets complex I know and I still don,t understand all the latest regs.

No idea what the US banks are doing currently.

Edited March 10, 2008 by stevemiddie

[Maestro]

...my bank in farangland said they got a fax saying I needed a 10 digit BNF account number on the form being sent. The person I talked to at my bank didn't know what they were referring to by a BNF number, so we figured it was because there was no Swift Code on the form...

Anyone else have a similar problem lately?

I believe it would help if you said in what countries the sending bank and the correspondent bank are.

As another poster said, BNF stands for “beneficiary” and if your foreign bank accepts payment orders only to banks that uses 10-digit account numbers you may have to change banks.

For additional reading, you may want to have a look at this document:

http://www.bankers-bank.com/pdf/Internatio...ion%20Guide.pdf

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Maestro

[Taggart]

I've been sending money to a bank account in Thailand, via wire transfer, at least once a year, for the last twenty years, and have never had a problem like this. The first time was a few days ago, when my bank in farangland said they got a fax saying I needed a 10 digit BNF account number on the form being sent. The person I talked to at my bank didn't know what they were referring to by a BNF number, so we figured it was because there was no Swift Code on the form. Went home and looked up the Beneficiary bank's swift code on the web, and phoned it in to my bank. I get a call a couple of days later, saying there was still a problem. Went in this morning and they said the account number was showing as 12 digits, and the Correspondent bank wants only 10 digits. Explained that that was the way I sent it last time, and there was no problem. The extra two digits at the beginning denote the bank code. Anyhow, to make them happy, dropped the two digit bank code from the form, and now they have a 10 digit number. Hopefully, the money gets there OK.

Anyone else have a similar problem lately?

No problems. Most banks use SWIFT which is an agreement between international banks ( kinda like a super agreement between banks by using codes in messages ) Not all banks are members of this.

The BNF is an abbreviation for BENEFICIARY. I note that the banks name may also be "Beneficiary". Do not get confused with the two. The amount of digits COULD vary from bank to bank depending on how many numbers are involved in the customers ( beneficiary ) account .

Can sometimes be replaced by the IBAN ( International Bank account Number ).

Its used to identify the account holders full account details. The IBAN is now a mandatory requirement for banks in the EU since about 2005/2006 to receive funds internationally.

Are you within the EU? The banks in the EU now have to have an additional two digit number to verify that a transaction / bank is valid. This two digit requirement is, I believe, fairly recent which MAY explain why one bank has asked you to drop two digits.

It gets complex I know and I still don,t understand all the latest regs.

No idea what the US banks are doing currently.

I'm in Canada. The Thai bank account is a 10 digit number, but the account also has a two digit bank code, which I've always in the past inserted in front of the account number when sending a wire transfer. No problem in the past. Now this latest wire transfer is being sent without a bank code, and nowhere on the wire transfer form do I see any place to insert it. As many of you know, a number of street addresses in Bangkok may have a very long name, and the one for the beneficiary bank I'm sending it to has likewise, but I had to end up editing the size of the address on the form, because it was too long to fit.

[Taggart]

...my bank in farangland said they got a fax saying I needed a 10 digit BNF account number on the form being sent. The person I talked to at my bank didn't know what they were referring to by a BNF number, so we figured it was because there was no Swift Code on the form...

Anyone else have a similar problem lately?

I believe it would help if you said in what countries the sending bank and the correspondent bank are.

As another poster said, BNF stands for “beneficiary” and if your foreign bank accepts payment orders only to banks that uses 10-digit account numbers you may have to change banks.

For additional reading, you may want to have a look at this document:

http://www.bankers-bank.com/pdf/Internatio...ion%20Guide.pdf

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Maestro

Maestro:

The money is being sent from a Canadian bank to a correspondent bank in Thailand. This correspondent bank then sends the money on to the beneficiary bank in Thailand where the account is located.

[Maestro]

Taggart, that sure is one strange bank you have there. It is the first time I hear that a bank’s payment order form requires an exact length for the beneficiary’s account number. I am inclined to think that there was some misunderstanding on the part of your bank’s correspondent bank.

Incidentally, it so happens that for three Thai banks I know the account numbers are in fact 10 numeric digits long, for another bank – HSBC – it is 11 digits, always including the branch code (first three digits), but this is entirely beside the point for a payment order form. It should accept any length for the beneficiary’s account number.

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Maestro

[Taggart]

Taggart, that sure is one strange bank you have there. It is the first time I hear that a bank’s payment order form requires an exact length for the beneficiary’s account number. I am inclined to think that there was some misunderstanding on the part of your bank’s correspondent bank.

Incidentally, it so happens that for three Thai banks I know the account numbers are in fact 10 numeric digits long, for another bank – HSBC – it is 11 digits, always including the branch code (first three digits), but this is entirely beside the point for a payment order form. It should accept any length for the beneficiary’s account number.

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Maestro

Maestro:

It's the same correspondent bank in Thailand as I sent to last time with a 12 digit bank account number (including the bank code). No problem. Now on this latest wire transfer to this same corresponding Thai bank, they are complaining in a fax to the Canadian bank that they only want a 10 digit number, so like I mentioned earlier, I had my bank delete the bank code and resend it. I noticed in the link you sent that they have a different section on the form to type in the beneficiary bank code. My form didn't have that option.

[lopburi3]

All Thai bank accounts are 10 digits so not sure how you found 12 for an account number. In the case of Bangkok Bank (and I believe others) the first three digits (of the ten) are the bank branch.

[naka]

I have five Thai passbooks from three different Thai banks. All have the same format xxx x xxxxx x

so all are ten digits.

I wonder where you found the other two digits, not from your passbook I suspect !

As Lopburi says the first three digits identify the branch.

Have always used this 10 digit account number for inward SWIFT with no problems.

Naka.

[Taggart]

I have five Thai passbooks from three different Thai banks. All have the same format xxx x xxxxx x

so all are ten digits.

I wonder where you found the other two digits, not from your passbook I suspect !

As Lopburi says the first three digits identify the branch.

Have always used this 10 digit account number for inward SWIFT with no problems.

Naka.

Naka & Lopburi:

The account number is separate in the passbook, and yes, it does show 10 digits. The passbook also shows in a separate area (same page) the bank code (two digit number). I've always in the past tacked on this bank code number in front of the account number when sending a wire transfer, and never had a problem (until now). We're talking at least twenty wire transfers over the same number of years.

[Maestro]

BBL: 10 digits, including branch number

HSBC: 11 digits, including branch number

Both accounts were closed years ago, so I'm afraid nobody can now go and deposit money there for me

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Maestro

[gzu88bv]

My 2 cents.

Checked my Savings Account with Krung Thai Bank that I opened late last year where the Account N° is of XXX X XXXXX X format.

At the same time I checked the 2 accounts of my lady with the same bank and those formats are the same.

I could imagine that the individual formats depend upon the account itself. My CHF, USD and EUR accounts with Credit Suisse in Switzerland all have a slightly different formats, the only format that

has a rigid format is the IBAN number that consists of 21 digits all the time.

IBAN is mandatory for payments abroad in Europe. If IBAN is missing, the bank charges you automatically higher charges.

Thailand does not know any IBAN numbers yet, at least Krung Thai Bank does not. When I transfer money from Switzerland to Thailand I use the Account Number and the SWIFT Code and I never had any

problems so far.

Be aware of the crooks. Some banks in Europe may even not have a correspondence bank in Thailand. In such a case they transfer your money to another bank who does maintain a correspondence bank in Thailand and subsequently you will be charged for it. I am talking facts here, since Credit Suisse (who does not have a correspondence bank in Thailand) gave my orders (in fact my money) to UBS who finally transfered it into my Thai Account. They did it twice and charged me a hefty CHF 18.-, but after I found out I started to use my UBS account and these guys do it for a mere CHF 5.- (I am talking here of Internet Online Banking)