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A bank transfer involves moving a sum of money from one account to another, commonly used for paying invoices.
If you receive an invoice, it usually includes a payment slip for a bank transfer. If not, you'll receive at least the following information necessary for making a transfer:
Often, the payment slip also includes a structured communication/reference. Make sure to include this when making your transfer. You can easily input all this information using digital banking.
Another option is to complete and sign the paper (red) form and return it to your bank. Note: some banks charge fees for manual processing.
Want to learn more about the European payment slip? Have a look at our leaflet.
IBAN
An IBAN is equivalent to a bank account number. The number of characters varies by country, but the maximum is 34. At the beginning of each IBAN are two letters that correspond to the (ISO) country code where the account is held (for example, FR for a French account or NL for a Dutch account).
The abbreviation for International Bank Account Number is "IBAN."
In Belgium, an IBAN number consists of 16 characters (originally it was 12). It starts with the letters 'BE', followed by 2 digits. Then come the 12 digits of the national account number.
So, a Belgian IBAN number could look like this: BE68 5390 0754 7034.
BIC
The BIC is used to identify a bank. The BIC consists of 8 or 11 characters and includes a bank code (4 characters), an ISO country code (2 letters), a location code (2 characters), and may be extended with an office code (3 characters) for certain banks.
BIC stands for Business Identifier Code.
Example of a Belgian BIC code: BANKBEBB.