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Each branch or bank office on the ISCD is identified by either a sorting code, BIC (bank identifier code) or both. One of the design aims of the IBAN was to enable as much validation as possible to be done at the point of data entry. Does the number of characters in the IBAN correspond to the number specified for this country?
In some countries the bank codes can be viewed over the internet, but mostly in the local language.
The underlying rules for IBANs is that the account-servicing financial institution should issue an IBAN, as there are a number of areas where different IBANs could be generated from the same account and branch numbers that would satisfy the generic IBAN validation rules. This often led to necessary routing information being missing from payments.