Bank of England SWIFT/BIC code

SWIFT/BIC code of Bank of England

Whether you are given BKENGB24 or BKENGB24XXX, you are looking at the identical identifier for Bank of England in United Kingdom. Banks worldwide use BIC codes to direct payments between countries to the correct institution. In daily life you usually see the code on international invoices, in payment forms and in the bank details of Bank of England customers.

Below we go through the practical side: receiving money at Bank of England, sending money abroad and how to verify the code before you hit send. The SWIFT code alone does not identify an individual account holder; that is what the IBAN or account number .

A note on our data

We gather bank codes using publicly available data and update our list from time to time. Still, banks merge, rename themselves or change codes and our data may lag behind. The figures we show are based on our own data, not official figures from Bank of England.

Before any payment that matters, always confirm the BIC with Bank of England or with the recipient. GoldexPay is a comparison service and not affiliated with Bank of England. If you notice a mistake, we appreciate a message via the contact page.

How to check BKENGB24 before you pay

Ask the recipient to send you their bank details directly from their online banking. When the code you were given does not match BKENGB24 or BKENGB24XXX, stop and ask – contact the recipient or Bank of England.

Errors in the BIC tend to be costly more than fatal: often the payment comes back, minus fees. Do not forget the IBAN: an error there is harder to correct than a wrong code.

Many banking apps validate the format of IBANs and sometimes look up the BIC automatically. More and more banks compare the payee name against the account; take any warning seriously. When you pay someone new, many people send a small amount first before sending the rest.

Do you need BKENGB24 for a SEPA transfer?

United Kingdom is a member of the SEPA area, the zone for standardised euro payments. When you send euros within SEPA, you normally only need the IBAN and the BIC is often filled in automatically.

You will still need BKENGB24XXX when sending payments in other currencies or transfers from countries outside SEPA. If your banking app asks for the BIC anyway, entering BKENGB24 is fine.

SEPA transfers usually arrive within one business day, and instant transfers in seconds where both banks support them. As long as the payment stays in euros, a SEPA transfer tends to be inexpensive.

Protect yourself against fake payment requests

Fraudsters often use fake invoices containing changed bank details. A valid SWIFT code says nothing about whether the request is genuine – scammers simply use real codes.

Before paying, confirm a change of bank details through a phone call on a number you know, not one from the message. Pressure and requests to keep it quiet are red flags. Already paid? Contact the bank you paid from without delay and ask them to try to recall the payment and report the fraud.

Fraud can also work the other way: someone sends too much and wants you to return the extra to a new account. A screenshot of a transfer proves nothing – check your own account.

Incoming international payments to Bank of England

Someone abroad who wants to pay you needs several details about your account, and missing ones are a common cause of delays. Share the account holder’s name, the IBAN or account number, the BIC BKENGB24XXX and your address, which some banks require.

The sender’s bank may request the address of your bank. A typo in your account number is harder to fix than you might think, so copy the details from your online banking.

Money from abroad does not always land in full. Intermediary banks may deduct a fee, Bank of England may charge for incoming payments, and if the money is converted, a markup on the rate comes on top. For business payments, it is common to agree who bears the costs to avoid a shortfall.

How long does an international transfer to Bank of England take?

There is no fixed delivery time for every transfer: many arrive the same day or the next. Bank holidays in either country add a day or more. Occasionally a bank wants to know what the payment is for.

When a payment takes longer than expected, contact your bank about the tracking status. Money transfer services often provide tracking in their app so you can see how far the money has got.

The bank that sent the money is able to start an official trace; the receiving side usually has nothing to trace yet. On the receiving end, it helps to check your statements to see a partial amount.

Head office or branch code at Bank of England?

We have 9 SWIFT/BIC codes for Bank of England. Besides the head office code BKENGB24XXX, you will find codes for individual branches and departments.

If nobody asks you for a branch code, use BKENGB24XXX or its short form BKENGB24. Branch codes are only needed if the recipient’s bank explicitly mentions it, which is more common for corporate accounts and specialised services.

The safest approach is to copy the code straight from the recipient’s invoice. Branch codes are sometimes changed or retired over time, so do not rely on old paperwork.

International transfers from Bank of England: the real cost

If you send money to another country through Bank of England, the visible fee is rarely all of what you pay. Besides the transfer fee, banks in between can deduct a fee, and when the money changes currency, the bank usually applies a rate below the real market rate.

Banks rarely show the margin on the rate separately – you only notice it if you compare. Check their rate against the mid-market rate, the midpoint between buy and sell rates you see on financial sites; the gap is what conversion costs you.

For a lot of routes, a specialist provider is cheaper than a traditional bank transfer, mainly because of the exchange rate. GoldexPay lists transfer providers side by side so you can see what actually arrives. Choosing a specialist does not require leaving Bank of England: you simply pay the service from your account.

Sending GBP to Bank of England

The local currency in United Kingdom is the British Pound (GBP). A payment in a foreign currency will be converted into GBP before it reaches the account, and whoever converts it chooses the rate. There is rarely a separate charge for the conversion – the cost sits in the rate.

Who converts the payment matters, because each party uses its own rate. Transferring the money already in GBP usually avoids a second conversion by Bank of England, provided the rate you get is fair.

Exchange rates change during the day – some services let you fix a rate in advance. On larger amounts, even small difference in the rate adds up quickly.

What the XXX in BKENGB24XXX means

Every SWIFT/BIC code has the same eight core characters: a four-letter bank code, a two-letter country code and a two-character location code. The result is BKENGB24 for Bank of England.

XXX at the end of BKENGB24XXX does not stand for a placeholder or an error: it stands for the head office of Bank of England. Some forms insist on 11 characters, and then you can add XXX behind BKENGB24.

In practice the code is typed in capitals, without spaces or dashes. Pasting the code beats retyping it: a typo can point to another bank.