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[nami]

Hi there,

I want to transfer some money from my European bank account to my Krung Thai account, however my branch code is 4 digits long. If I understood correctly the SWIFT code is bank + country + location + branch, being 8 to 11 digits long depending on the branch being present and its length. So in my case this would be KRTH TH BK 1205, but my bank website doesn't allow me to put the full branch code (ie 3 digits only).

Should I just put XXX for the main branch or how I should do this?

[nami]

Uhm, I think somehow I got it wrong. On KTB branch search page it shows the 1205 as the branch code, however my account number starts by 981 that should be the branch. Could anyone verify this is right?

Thanks

[nami]

Well, total failure. I tried to do the transfer and I got an error message saying: The banking information to identify the destination bank corresponds to a bank that does not exist or has been taken down (unsubscribed) recently.

Looking at the KTB website I found this:

Additional suggestions for using international money transfer services are as follows.

- Correspondent banks worldwide in France is the bank of Natixis Banques Populaires, Paris (Swift Code - BFCEFRPP).

- Correspondent banks worldwide in European countries, Germany is the bank of Hypovereiners Bank ag., Muenchen (Swift Code - HYVEDEMM)

- Full Name of the Bank, Krung Thai Bank PCL. (Swift code - KRTHTHBK).

Please check the accuracy of: Account number of beneficiaries must be 10 digits (The first three digit is a branch clearing code).

So this confirms the first 3 digits are the branch, and the swift code is the one I was entering. Does anyone understand what are the 2 European SWIFTs for? I just don't get what they mean. Do I need to use the German bank Swift? If yes, how they will know the account is a KTB one instead of one of their own?

So confusing :S

[bifftastic]

The SWIFT code is just letters, no numbers.

Your account number should have the branch ident included in it. So you don't need to find another number to add to what you've got on your account details.

So you just need the SWIFT code and your account number.

[nami]

Thanks for replying :-)

My bank website has 2 ways for entering the destination bank:

- By text (bank name, location, etc)

- By SWIFT. There is a form with 4 edit textfields with lengths 4 - 2 - 2 -3 (Bank, country, location, branch). According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9362 this would be KRTH TH BK <branch OR XXX for main office>

Still, that information about the French and German banks SWIFT confuses me...

[Sophon]

Well, total failure. I tried to do the transfer and I got an error message saying: The banking information to identify the destination bank corresponds to a bank that does not exist or has been taken down (unsubscribed) recently.

Looking at the KTB website I found this:

Additional suggestions for using international money transfer services are as follows.

- Correspondent banks worldwide in France is the bank of Natixis Banques Populaires, Paris (Swift Code - BFCEFRPP).

- Correspondent banks worldwide in European countries, Germany is the bank of Hypovereiners Bank ag., Muenchen (Swift Code - HYVEDEMM)

- Full Name of the Bank, Krung Thai Bank PCL. (Swift code - KRTHTHBK).

Please check the accuracy of: Account number of beneficiaries must be 10 digits (The first three digit is a branch clearing code).

So this confirms the first 3 digits are the branch, and the swift code is the one I was entering. Does anyone understand what are the 2 European SWIFTs for? I just don't get what they mean. Do I need to use the German bank Swift? If yes, how they will know the account is a KTB one instead of one of their own?

So confusing :S

Banks don't have individual SWIFT codes for different branches, so you just use the main code KRTHTHBK. The transfer is sent to (and processed by) the bank's central computer system not to a branch office and your account number is a unique identifier, so there is no need for a separate code for each branch. If your bank requires you to enter 11 characters then add the "XXX", but that sounds unlikely as almost all banks worldwide use the 8 character format when informing about their main SWIFT code. What did you try to use when creating the transfer that was rejected? If KRTHTHBK981 then your bank is correct that such a code doesn't exist.

Forget the information about correspondent banks. A few banks (especially US banks) have systems that require the customer to inform in which bank the transfer will be covered, but most banks have that information in a correspondent bank register. Correspondent banks are used when sending and receiving bank don't have accounts with each other, in which case sending bank will pay the money into receiving bank's account with a correspondent bank.

Sophon

[nami]

Thanks Sophon and Bifftastic, you were both right. I tried again with just the SWIFT without branch or XXX and it worked properly this time (actually the website put the XXX automatically when I left it blank).

Thanks ;-)

[koo]

Thai banks do not use the branch codes for foreign transfers, since all these are processed at the head offices in Bangkok. Thus all transfers to Thai banks should have ----THBK as the BIC, where the ---- identifies the bank. If your sending bank insists on 11-character BIC, then add the "empty branchcode" of XXX as the last three characters.

SWIFT BICs are indeed actually 12 characters long, but since the logical terminal -character is only for technical purposes, it is left out:

First 4 characters identify the institution: (BKKB for Bangkok Bank)

Next 2 the country: (TH for Thailand)

Next 2 the city or other sort code (BK for Bangkok)

Next 1 character is the Logical Terminal code (normally not visible, can be anything alphanumeric)

Last 3 characters is the branch code (alphanumeric, XXX or leave out if there is none or head office)

So for the OP the BIC suggested should read KRTHTHBK205 (with the LT code "1" left out), but since all incoming transfers are handled at the head office, you should use KRTHTHBK or KRTHTHBKXXX.

BTW, SWIFT's BIC search (@ http://www.swift.com/index.page?lang=en ) for that branch code gives nothing, so it must be erroneous or obsolete.