If a form is asking you for a "routing number" for a South African bank account, you have hit a US-centric form. South Africa does not use routing numbers — and knowing what to enter instead saves a failed payment.
This is the short, practical answer: what routing numbers are, what South Africa uses in their place, and the exact codes for every major SA bank.
What a routing number is (and why SA doesn't have them)
A routing number (also called an ABA number or routing transit number) is a 9-digit code that identifies a bank in the United States payment system. Canada has transit numbers, the UK has sort codes, Europe has IBANs.
South Africa's equivalent is the branch code: a 6-digit code that identifies the bank (and historically, the specific branch) within the South African payment system, operated by BankservAfrica.
So when a form asks for a routing number and the account is South African:
- If the form is for a domestic SA payment — it almost certainly wants the branch code.
- If the form is for an international payment into South Africa — it wants the bank's SWIFT/BIC code, not a routing number and not a branch code.
Universal branch codes for every major SA bank
South African banks have replaced branch-specific codes with a single universal branch code per bank. Use the universal code unless a platform explicitly demands the branch-specific one.
| Bank | Universal Branch Code |
|---|---|
| FNB (First National Bank) | 250655 |
| Standard Bank | 051001 |
| ABSA | 632005 |
| Nedbank | 198765 |
| Capitec | 470010 |
| African Bank | 430000 |
| Investec | 580105 |
| TymeBank | 678910 |
| Discovery Bank | 679000 |
| Bidvest Bank | 462005 |
SWIFT codes for international payments
For money coming into South Africa from abroad, the sender's bank needs the SWIFT/BIC code plus your account number. South Africa does not use IBANs.
| Bank | SWIFT / BIC Code |
|---|---|
| FNB | FIRNZAJJ |
| Standard Bank | SBZAZAJJ |
| ABSA | ABSAZAJJ |
| Nedbank | NEDSZAJJ |
| Capitec | CABLZAJJ |
| Investec | IVESZAJJ |
An 8-character SWIFT code points to the bank's head office, which is correct for most transfers. For the full picture of what makes up SA bank details — account numbers, account types, and when each code applies — see Bank Details in South Africa.
Quick translation table for foreign forms
| The form asks for… | For a South African account, use… |
|---|---|
| Routing number / ABA number (US) | Branch code (domestic) or SWIFT (international) |
| Sort code (UK) | Branch code |
| Transit number (Canada) | Branch code |
| IBAN (Europe) | SA has no IBAN — account number + SWIFT |
| BIC / SWIFT | The bank's SWIFT code (table above) |
Getting bank details right at scale
Wrong codes are a one-off annoyance for an individual; for a business paying dozens of suppliers or collecting from many customers, banking detail errors are a recurring cost — payments bounce, recons break, and someone chases the correction.
Two related guides if that is your situation: How to Verify a Bank Account in South Africa covers confirming details before first payment, and BankLink can learn the account number directly from a live transaction sync on a linked account — more reliable than asking a client to type their details into a form.