Farbanca S.P.A. SWIFT/BIC code

FARBIT21 – the SWIFT/BIC code of Farbanca S.P.A.

Whether a recipient gives you FARBIT21 or FARBIT21XXX, you are looking at the identical address for Farbanca S.P.A. in Italy. A SWIFT code tells the sending bank which institution is meant to get the money. You will need it mainly when dealing with payments that cross a border or a currency.

Further down we go through the practical questions: receiving money at Farbanca S.P.A., sending money abroad and how to check a SWIFT code before you confirm a payment. Keep in mind that the BIC only identifies the bank, not the account: the IBAN or account number takes care of that.

International transfers from Farbanca S.P.A.: the real cost

An international bank payment costs more than the fee suggests. Besides the transfer fee, banks in between may take a cut, and if the money changes currency, the bank often uses a rate that is less favourable than the actual market rate.

Many banks rarely show their exchange rate markup separately – you only notice it if you compare. An easy check: set the rate you get next to the mid-market rate and look at the difference.

For many currency pairs, a transfer service is cheaper than a traditional bank transfer – mostly thanks to the rate. GoldexPay lists these services next to each other so you can see the amount the recipient gets for the same amount sent. Using a transfer service does not require closing your account at Farbanca S.P.A..

How long does an international transfer to Farbanca S.P.A. take?

How quickly a transfer arrives at Farbanca S.P.A. is determined by a few things: which currency you send, the number of banks in between, cut-off times and differences in time zone. Transfers sent late in the day or just before weekends and holidays often start the next business day. Occasionally a bank asks what the payment is for, which can hold things up.

A growing number of banks are connected to SWIFT gpi. Each gpi transfer gets a unique reference, the UETR, which your bank can use to see where the money is. Specialist transfer services usually show a status in their app showing how far the money has got.

Only the sending bank is able to start an official trace or a recall; the receiving side usually has nothing to trace yet. As a recipient, it helps to look at your statements to see a slightly lower amount, since fees may have been deducted.

Changed bank details? Be careful

One of the most common tricks works like this: an email arrives with a request claiming that a supplier now has new bank details. A real SWIFT code tells you nothing about whether the request is genuine.

Verify changed bank details via a different channel like a call to a number from an earlier contract, not by replying to the message. Watch out for urgent requests, unusual wording or a sender address that is slightly off. Acted too fast? Call your bank without delay and ask them to try to recall the payment; also report it to the police.

Recipients can be targeted as well: one known trick is an overpayment followed by a request to send back the difference to another account. Do not act before the money is actually in your account.

8 or 11 characters: FARBIT21 versus FARBIT21XXX

The structure of every SWIFT code is always the same: a bank code of four letters, two for the country and two for the location, sometimes followed by a branch code. The result is FARBIT21, the short form of the code.

Most banks and apps accept both lengths. If yours requires eleven characters, enter FARBIT21XXX.

Enter the code in one piece, in capitals and without spaces, exactly as shown here. Copying the code is safer than typing it by hand, because one wrong letter changes the bank.

A note on our data

The details here come from publicly available data which we refresh regularly. Still, banks merge or change codes and our data may lag behind. The number of codes on this page are based on our own data.

See the information here as a handy check. GoldexPay is not affiliated with Farbanca S.P.A.; we are a comparison site for money transfers. Spotted outdated information? Let us know via our contact form and we will look into it.

The Euro and what conversion costs you

Accounts at Farbanca S.P.A. are typically held in EUR, the local currency. When you pay another currency, the amount has to be converted at some point. You rarely see a separate line for that conversion.

Which bank converts the payment matters, because each party uses its own rate. Check how much EUR the recipient gets via several services before choosing one.

Rates for EUR change during the day. For regular payments, small differences in the rate make a real difference over a year.

How to check FARBIT21 before you pay

The best place to find the right code remains paperwork issued by the bank like a bank statement or the account page in online banking. If the code you have differs from FARBIT21 or FARBIT21XXX, stop and ask – contact the recipient or Farbanca S.P.A..

With a wrong code, the payment might be delayed, be returned or cost extra. A mistake in the IBAN or account number can be a bigger problem, so check that just as carefully.

Most online banking apps validate the format of IBANs and sometimes look up the BIC automatically – that confirms the format, not the owner. If your bank offers it, a payee name check on the recipient gives extra certainty. For a first payment, some people start with a small amount first.

SEPA payments and the Farbanca S.P.A. BIC

Inside SEPA, euro transfers to an account in Italy use the same rules. A field for the BIC is often optional for those payments.

A SWIFT code like FARBIT21 does matter when the currency is not euros, and for transfers from outside SEPA. If your banking app has a field for the BIC regardless, adding FARBIT21 does no harm.

Instant payments in euros have become increasingly supported across SEPA. As long as no currency is converted, a SEPA transfer is inexpensive; it is the conversion that costs money.

Head office or branch code at Farbanca S.P.A.?

With 2 codes, Farbanca S.P.A. is one of the banks that use separate codes for parts of the organisation. The head office code is FARBIT21XXX.

If nobody asks you for a branch code, use FARBIT21XXX. Only use a branch code when your contact explicitly asks for it.

The best way is to take the code directly from the recipient’s bank details. Branch codes can change over time, so a code from an old document is not always valid.

Receiving money from abroad at Farbanca S.P.A.

A sender in another country will ask for a few details from you, and missing ones are a common cause of delays. In practice that means: your name as registered with Farbanca S.P.A., your account number or IBAN, the SWIFT/BIC code FARBIT21XXX (or FARBIT21) and, often, your postal address.

Their bank might also ask for the address of your bank; the head office in Bologna is usually fine. A mistake in the IBAN is harder to fix than it looks, so copy the details from your online banking.

Money from abroad will not always land in full. Charges on incoming payments differ per bank; check the price list of Farbanca S.P.A.. Make clear with the sender who covers the fees, especially for larger amounts.