When you hear of swift codes and routing numbers, think money transfers. We hear of money transfer from one account to another even from country to country with next to nil mistakes, this is because banks and finance institutions use very special codes and numbers to perform this task.
A swift code is a number of alphanumeric known as identifiers whose purpose is to inform the system on how each transfer will be handled. This code has been constructed within the institution and is constructed in a way that it can identify all network institutions all over the world.it is mostly used for international money transfers.
Routing number is a coded alphanumeric just like the swift code. The only difference is that the identifiers are constructed to identify make transfer within ones country or state.
| Swift code | Routing numbers | |
| Analogy | Stands for “Society for Worldwide interbank Financial Telecommunication” serves as identifier for the reason of wire transfers internationally | It is a bank identifier usually shown in the bottom of checks indicating which bank its taken from. |
| What is it composed of | 11 alphanumeric characters | Nine digit number |
| Utilization | International wire transfers only | Electronic payment processing |
From the above definitions, it is evident that both swift code and routing number are very important tools when transferring money with the main aim being to tell the system how and where to send the money thus very accurate and efficient. The only difference is that swift code is used for international money transfers while routing number is used for domestic transfers.
