IFSC Code Lookup

About the IFSC code lookup

The IFSC code lookup validates and decodes the Indian Financial System Code: an 11-character alphanumeric identifier the Reserve Bank of India assigns to every bank branch that participates in electronic funds transfer. NEFT, RTGS, and IMPS payment instructions all use IFSC to route a credit to the exact branch where the beneficiary's account is held. Without a valid IFSC the payment fails before it even leaves your bank, which is why every cheque book, passbook, and net-banking statement carries the branch's code on the first page.

The tool tests the format against the RBI's published mask (four letters, one literal zero, six alphanumeric) and identifies the bank from the four-letter prefix using a built-in lookup of the largest scheduled commercial banks. Format validation catches the most common errors at remittance: a transposed character, a stray space, the letter "O" typed instead of the digit "0" in the fifth position, or a lowercase string copy-pasted from email.

How the IFSC structure works

Each IFSC has a fixed three-part anatomy that the RBI standardised in 2011 when it formalised NEFT routing. Position five always carries a literal "0" to leave room for future expansion to a 12-character system. The branch code is alphanumeric but in practice is six digits for most banks, with HDFC, Axis, and a few private banks using letters in the branch portion.

positions 1-4   bank code     letters       e.g. HDFC, ICIC, SBIN, UTIB
position  5     reserved      always '0'    space for future digit
positions 6-11  branch code   alphanumeric  e.g. 000123, MUM001

• Bank code: four letters representing the bank. HDFC for HDFC Bank, ICIC for ICICI, SBIN for State Bank, UTIB for the old Axis (post-rebrand from UTI Bank).
• Reserved zero: the literal digit "0" sits at position five. Codes with a letter here are invalid even if they look right.
• Branch code: typically six digits in zero-padded form, used internally by the bank to identify the specific branch. The same six digits do not necessarily match the bank's CIF or branch-code field on a chequebook.

Worked example

You receive an invoice that asks you to remit funds to IFSC HDFC0000123.

1. Length check: 11 characters. Pass.
2. Bank prefix: positions 1-4 are "HDFC". Lookup says HDFC Bank.
3. Reserved zero: position 5 is "0". Pass.
4. Branch code: positions 6-11 are "000123". Format is six alphanumeric. Pass.
5. Format mask match: regex /^[A-Z]{4}0[A-Z0-9]{6}$/ accepts the string.
6. Use: paste the code into the NEFT/RTGS/IMPS beneficiary form on your bank app, double-check the beneficiary name returned by the bank's branch-name lookup, then approve the transfer.

Bank prefixes for the largest Indian banks

Common pitfalls

• Letter O instead of digit 0. The reserved fifth character is the digit zero, not the letter O. The visual difference is small but the bank's parser rejects the wrong one. Paste from your bank statement rather than typing manually.
• Old codes after a bank merger. Vijaya, Dena (merged into Bank of Baroda 2019), Allahabad (merged into Indian Bank 2020), Andhra/Corp/Syndicate/Oriental (merged into PSU consolidations 2020) and Lakshmi Vilas (merged into DBS 2020) IFSCs were retired. Always reverify with the surviving bank's IFSC search before sending money.
• Wrong branch within the same bank. A typo in the branch portion can still pass format validation if it happens to match another existing branch. Confirm the branch name your remitting bank returns.
• Lower-case strings copy-pasted from email. Most banks normalise case server-side but some payment forms reject. The tool upper-cases automatically before checking.
• MICR vs IFSC confusion. MICR is the 9-digit number used in cheque clearing (CTS-2010). It is different from IFSC and not interchangeable; using one in place of the other will silently route to the wrong system.
• SWIFT code mismatch. SWIFT/BIC codes (used for international wires) are 8 or 11 characters, in a different format. International beneficiaries need both the SWIFT and the IFSC for an inward remittance.

Related tools and references

Frequently asked questions