IBAN Lengths by Country
Every country that uses IBAN has a fixed character length defined by the ISO 13616 standard — and the first thing any IBAN validator checks is whether an IBAN matches its country's expected length. A number that is even one character too short or too long will fail before the checksum is ever checked.
Lengths range from 15 characters (Norway) to 31 characters (Malta), with most European countries falling between 18 and 27. Use this table to verify that an IBAN you've received is the right length for its country, or to understand why an IBAN is being rejected.
15
Shortest
Norway
24.1
Average
characters
33
Longest
Russia
Length Distribution
15
NO
16
BE
18
DK, FO, FI, GL, NL, SD
19
MK, SI
20
AT, BA, EE, KZ, XK, LT, LU
21
HR, LV, LI, CH
22
BH, BG, CR, GE, DE, IE, ME, RS, GB, VA
23
TL, GI, IQ, IL, SO, AE
24
AD, VG, CZ, MD, PK, RO, SA, SK, ES, SE, TN
25
LY, PT, ST
26
IS, TR
27
FR, GR, IT, MR, MC, SM
28
AL, AZ, BY, CY, DO, SV, GT, HU, LB, PL
29
BR, EG, PS, QA, UA
30
JO, KW, MU
31
MT, SC
32
LC
33
RU
| Country | Code | Length | SEPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Norway | NO | 15 | SEPA |
| Belgium | BE | 16 | SEPA |
| Denmark | DK | 18 | SEPA |
| Faroe Islands | FO | 18 | — |
| Finland | FI | 18 | SEPA |
| Greenland | GL | 18 | — |
| Netherlands | NL | 18 | SEPA |
| Sudan | SD | 18 | — |
| North Macedonia | MK | 19 | — |
| Slovenia | SI | 19 | SEPA |
| Austria | AT | 20 | SEPA |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | BA | 20 | — |
| Estonia | EE | 20 | SEPA |
| Kazakhstan | KZ | 20 | — |
| Kosovo | XK | 20 | — |
| Lithuania | LT | 20 | SEPA |
| Luxembourg | LU | 20 | SEPA |
| Croatia | HR | 21 | SEPA |
| Latvia | LV | 21 | SEPA |
| Liechtenstein | LI | 21 | SEPA |
| Switzerland | CH | 21 | SEPA |
| Bahrain | BH | 22 | — |
| Bulgaria | BG | 22 | SEPA |
| Costa Rica | CR | 22 | — |
| Georgia | GE | 22 | — |
| Germany | DE | 22 | SEPA |
| Ireland | IE | 22 | SEPA |
| Montenegro | ME | 22 | — |
| Serbia | RS | 22 | — |
| United Kingdom | GB | 22 | SEPA |
| Vatican City | VA | 22 | SEPA |
| East Timor | TL | 23 | — |
| Gibraltar | GI | 23 | SEPA |
| Iraq | IQ | 23 | — |
| Israel | IL | 23 | — |
| Somalia | SO | 23 | — |
| United Arab Emirates | AE | 23 | — |
| Andorra | AD | 24 | — |
| British Virgin Islands | VG | 24 | — |
| Czech Republic | CZ | 24 | SEPA |
| Moldova | MD | 24 | — |
| Pakistan | PK | 24 | — |
| Romania | RO | 24 | SEPA |
| Saudi Arabia | SA | 24 | — |
| Slovakia | SK | 24 | SEPA |
| Spain | ES | 24 | SEPA |
| Sweden | SE | 24 | SEPA |
| Tunisia | TN | 24 | — |
| Libya | LY | 25 | — |
| Portugal | PT | 25 | SEPA |
| São Tomé and Príncipe | ST | 25 | — |
| Iceland | IS | 26 | SEPA |
| Turkey | TR | 26 | — |
| France | FR | 27 | SEPA |
| Greece | GR | 27 | SEPA |
| Italy | IT | 27 | SEPA |
| Mauritania | MR | 27 | — |
| Monaco | MC | 27 | SEPA |
| San Marino | SM | 27 | SEPA |
| Albania | AL | 28 | — |
| Azerbaijan | AZ | 28 | — |
| Belarus | BY | 28 | — |
| Cyprus | CY | 28 | SEPA |
| Dominican Republic | DO | 28 | — |
| El Salvador | SV | 28 | — |
| Guatemala | GT | 28 | — |
| Hungary | HU | 28 | SEPA |
| Lebanon | LB | 28 | — |
| Poland | PL | 28 | SEPA |
| Brazil | BR | 29 | — |
| Egypt | EG | 29 | — |
| Palestine | PS | 29 | — |
| Qatar | QA | 29 | — |
| Ukraine | UA | 29 | — |
| Jordan | JO | 30 | — |
| Kuwait | KW | 30 | — |
| Mauritius | MU | 30 | — |
| Malta | MT | 31 | SEPA |
| Seychelles | SC | 31 | — |
| Saint Lucia | LC | 32 | — |
| Russia | RU | 33 | — |
Why do IBAN lengths vary? Each country's IBAN encodes a different local account structure (BBAN). Countries with longer legacy account numbers — like Malta (34) or Jordan and Kuwait (30) — simply need more characters. The 4-character prefix (country code + check digits) is fixed; the rest is the local BBAN whose format is set by each country's banking authority.