It consists of a four character header comprising an ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code, followed by two check digits that are calculated using a mod-97 technique and a country-specific Basic Bank Account Number (BBAN) of up to thirty alphanumeric characters.
The sort code, which is a six-digit number, is usually formatted as three pairs of numbers, for example 12-34-56. Money being transferred across international borders, the international network is used. In some cases, the first digit of the sort code identifies the bank itself and in other cases the first 2 digits identify the bank.
It is increasingly important that we are able to make automated payments smoothly and efficiently.