financeb2bWhat a UK sort code is, and why your British customer keeps asking for one
Six digits that decide whether a payment from a UK customer arrives as a domestic transfer or as an international one. If you trade with Britain and only have an IBAN, this is the gap.
A sort code is a six-digit number that identifies a bank and branch in the United Kingdom, written as three pairs such as 04‑00‑75. Together with an eight-digit account number it is all a UK payer needs to send a domestic transfer. It is the British equivalent of a national routing code, comparable in purpose to a German Bankleitzahl or a US routing number. An IBAN is not a replacement: UK domestic systems address payments by sort code and account number, and a company without them is paid as a foreign account, which is slower and costs the payer more.
What the six digits actually mean
A sort code is written as three pairs separated by hyphens. The pairs are not decorative: the first pair identifies the bank, and the remaining four digits narrow it down to a specific branch or clearing entity within that bank.
The format never varies. Six digits, always. If you have been given something longer or shorter, it is not a sort code.
| Part | Example | What it identifies |
|---|---|---|
| First pair | 04 | The bank |
| Last four digits | 00‑75 | The branch or clearing entity |
| Account number | 8 digits | The account at that branch |
Sort codes and their routing rules are published by Pay.UK in the Extended Industry Sorting Code Directory (EISCD), which is the authoritative list of which codes exist and which payment schemes each one can accept.
Why an IBAN does not replace it
This is where most non-UK businesses lose money without noticing. The United Kingdom has IBANs, and a UK IBAN contains the sort code and account number inside it. So in principle the information is there. In practice the domestic payment systems — Faster Payments, Bacs and CHAPS — are addressed by sort code and account number, not by IBAN.
What happens when a UK customer is given only an IBAN depends on their bank. Often the payment is routed as an international transfer instead of a domestic one. The customer pays a fee they did not expect, the money takes longer, and somebody has to explain it. Several times, that customer starts asking whether you have "a normal UK account".
| Sort code + account number | IBAN only | |
|---|---|---|
| Route taken | UK domestic rails | Often international |
| Typical arrival | Faster Payments, within minutes | Longer, varies by bank |
| Who pays the fee | Usually nobody | Usually the payer |
| What the payer sees | A normal UK transfer | A foreign payment form |
Arrival times describe the schemes themselves, not a promise about any one account.
What it corresponds to in your country
If it helps to anchor it: a sort code occupies the same place in the UK system that a national bank code occupies elsewhere. The comparison is about purpose, not about format — the codes are not interchangeable and cannot be converted into one another.
| Country | Equivalent idea | Still needed for UK domestic payments? |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | Sort code, 6 digits | Yes, this is the one |
| Germany | Bankleitzahl, 8 digits | No |
| France | Code banque + code guichet | No |
| Spain | Código de entidad + oficina | No |
| Italy | ABI + CAB | No |
| Netherlands | Absorbed into the IBAN | No |
| United States | ABA routing number, 9 digits | No |
How a company outside the UK gets its own sort code
You do not need a British company, a British office or a British director. What you need is an account held with a UK-regulated institution that issues UK account details. Several payment institutions do this for companies registered elsewhere in Europe and beyond.
Through our partner Gemba, an FCA-authorised payment institution (FRN 804853), the account comes with a real sort code and eight-digit account number, so UK customers pay you the way they pay anyone else in Britain. It is not a bank: funds are safeguarded rather than covered by the FSCS deposit guarantee, and that difference is worth understanding before you decide.
Want UK account details for a company registered outside Britain?
See what it costsChecking a sort code you have been given
Before sending money to a new UK supplier, two things are worth verifying: that the sort code exists at all, and that the account it belongs to is in the name you expect.
- Is the combination arithmetically valid? Sort code and account number carry a checksum. Our sort code and account number checker runs the Pay.UK modulus rules in your browser. It catches typos, which is most of what goes wrong. It cannot confirm the code is in use: that mapping lives in the EISCD, which is a separately licensed product, not a public lookup.
- Does the name match? UK banks run Confirmation of Payee, which tells the payer whether the account name matches before the money leaves. If you are paying a new supplier and the name does not match, stop and call them.
Questions people actually ask
What is a sort code?
Is a sort code the same as a BIC or SWIFT code?
Can I use an IBAN instead of a sort code?
Does a UK IBAN contain the sort code?
Can a company registered outside the UK get a sort code?
How many digits does a sort code have?
Is a sort code the same as a German Bankleitzahl?
Sources
- Pay.UK, Extended Industry Sorting Code Directory (EISCD) — the authoritative register of UK sort codes and the schemes each accepts.
- Financial Conduct Authority, Financial Services Register, firm reference number 804853.
- Gemba corporate fee schedule, ge.mba/pages/corporate-fees.
Get paid like a UK business, from wherever you are registered.
Real UK account details, 16 currencies, and published fees rather than a quote per deal. We also say plainly when this is the wrong answer for you.