SWIFT/BIC codes in Malaysia: banks starting with H

Malaysia: banks and their SWIFT/BIC codes

Our directory covers 321 banks and financial institutions in Malaysia and 413 SWIFT/BIC codes between them. You will need such a code mostly when making payments across borders.

Look for the recipient’s bank in the list and open its page for the full list of codes and what else a transfer requires. The rest of this page covers the structure of the codes, the cost of transfers and the checks worth doing.

Incoming international payments in Malaysia

When you expect money from abroad in Malaysia, send the payer all details at once. In practice that means: your name as your bank knows it, your IBAN or account number, the SWIFT/BIC code of your bank and usually your postal address.

Find your bank in the list on this page. You can include the name and city of your bank.

Expect that the incoming amount is smaller than what the sender paid. Charges on incoming payments vary per bank; check the price list of your bank. Agree with the sender who pays which costs.

Transfer times to Malaysia

How quickly a payment reaches Malaysia is determined by several factors: which currency you send, how many intermediary banks are involved, cut-off times and differences in time zone. Payments made late in the day or just before a weekend or public holiday usually start a business day later.

If a transfer is delayed, the sender should contact their own bank for a trace; only the sending side can start an official trace. Money transfer services often provide tracking in their app, which makes it easier to see where the money is.

How SWIFT codes from Malaysia are built

SWIFT/BIC codes use the same format worldwide: eight characters, sometimes followed by three more. Characters one to four identify the bank, characters five and six are the country code and the next two give the location.

In every code from Malaysia, characters five and six show the two-letter ISO code of Malaysia, which makes these codes easy to recognise. Codes with a different country code come from a bank abroad, even if the bank name looks familiar.

The last three characters, if present, identify a branch or department; XXX means the head office. In most cases the head office code is fine unless the recipient asks for a specific branch.

How reliable is this list?

Ask the recipient to copy their bank details directly from their online banking. An incorrect BIC can cause a delay, a payment being sent back or additional charges, so compare it with the list on this page.

The directory on GoldexPay is based on public sources. Even so, banks merge or retire codes, so information can be out of date. Treat this list as a starting point, not as the final word; the recipient’s bank details are leading. GoldexPay is a comparison site, not a bank.

Scammers regularly use payment requests with changed bank details. A valid BIC tells you nothing about who owns the account.

Filter: banks in Malaysia with :letter

Here you see a selection: just banks in Malaysia with a name starting with :letter. The counts in the introduction always cover the whole country and not only this selection.

Many institutions appear under their legal name, so the letter can differ from what you expect. Use the full list for Malaysia when you do not know how the name is spelled.

SWIFT transfers to Malaysia

Malaysia is outside the SEPA area. Payments from abroad usually go over the SWIFT network.

Not every country uses the IBAN – where there is none, the local account number is enough. Ask the recipient exactly which details their bank requires for incoming international payments. On the way to Malaysia, a payment may go through intermediary banks that charge for their part.

The largest SWIFT network in Malaysia: United Overseas Bank (Malaysia) Berhad

Among the 321 institutions we list, United Overseas Bank (Malaysia) Berhad has the largest number of SWIFT/BIC codes of all banks in Malaysia. Its main office uses UOVBMYKLXXX.

The number of codes says something about how it organises its payments than about its size. If not a branch code is given, UOVBMYKLXXX is fine for a payment to United Overseas Bank (Malaysia) Berhad.

Sending money to Malaysia for less

If you send money to Malaysia via a regular bank, the stated fee is rarely all of what you pay. You pay the transfer fee, possibly fees from correspondent banks along the way and, most importantly, the margin on the exchange rate when currencies differ.

Most of the cost usually sits in the exchange rate. Check the rate you are offered against the mid-market rate, the midpoint you see on financial news sites.

For a lot of currency pairs, a specialist provider turns out to be less expensive than a bank – mostly thanks to the exchange rate. Before you send money to Malaysia, it is worth comparing the total cost via GoldexPay instead of going straight to your bank.