Bank state branch

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "australian bank state branch number" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

A Bank State Branch (often referred to as "BSB") is the name used in Australia for a bank code, which is a branch identifier. The BSB is normally used in association with the account number system used by each financial institution. The structure of the BSB + account number does not permit for account numbers to be transferable between financial institutions. While similar in structure, the New Zealand and Australian systems are only used in domestic transactions and are incompatible with each other. For international transfers, a SWIFT code is used in addition to the BSB and account number.

The BSB identifier consists of six numerals, the first two or three of which is a bank identifier. Many banks only have one BSB for all branches and accounts.^[1][2] The BSB is used for processing of paper and electronic transactions, but not in payment card numbering.

In Australia, the Australian Payments Network (AusPayNet) is now the regulatory body of cheque clearances and of the BSB codes in Australia. AusPayNet assigns the bank code to a financial institution and the financial institution allocates the other digits to its branches, in line with guidelines set by AusPayNet. Some financial institutions have more than one bank identifier, arising from mergers of financial institutions or consolidating by banks of their trading and savings banks operations. As of March 2012, almost 14,300 unique BSB code values were in use.