IBAN (International Bank Account Number)
A standardized international account number used to route cross-border bank transfers and settlements.
An IBAN, or International Bank Account Number, is a standardized way of writing a bank account number so funds can be routed across borders without ambiguity. It encodes the country, a checksum, and the domestic account identifier in a single string of up to 34 characters.
IBANs matter to merchants who settle in more than one currency or hold an account outside the United States. Where a US account is identified by a routing and account number, most of Europe and much of the Middle East and Asia identify it by IBAN, and settlement instructions will be rejected if the format is wrong.
For a high-risk merchant working with an offshore or multi-currency setup, the IBAN is simply the destination the acquirer pays into. The checksum built into it catches most typos before a payout is ever sent.