Routing transit number

A routing transit number (RTN), or routing number, is a nine digit bank code, used in the United States, which appears on the bottom of negotiable instruments such as checks that identifies which financial institution it is drawn upon. This code is also used by the Automated Clearing House to process direct deposits and other automated transfers. The routing number is derived from the bank's transit number originated by the American Bankers Association, which designed it in 1910.

ABA number management

Since 1911, the American Bankers Association has assigned transit numbers through a series of registrars, currently Accuity. [ [http://www.accuitysolutions.com/co-press-release.html?id=20080114QK8G3EH8 Accuity also registers SWIFT codes] ] The company is responsible for assigning new ABA numbers. Accuity publishes the ABA Number Directory in the "American Bankers Association Key to Routing Numbers" semi-annually.

There are approximately 28,000 active routing and transit numbers currently in use. Every financial institution in the United States has at least one of these.

The ABA transit number generally appears in the upper right part of a check near the date. It looks like a fraction, with a numerator and a denominator. The denominator is identical to the first four digits of the routing number. The numerator consists of two parts. The prefix is a one to three digit code indicating the region where the bank is located. The numbers 1 to 49 are cities. They were assigned by size of the cities in 1910. The numbers 50 to 99 are states. They were assigned in a rough spatial geographic order. They are used for banks located outside one of the 49 numbered cities. There might be a fourth element to the ABA number, a branch number, at either the end of the transit number or to the right of it.

Routing number format

The routing number consists of 9 digits:: XXXXYYYYCwhere XXXX is Federal Reserve Routing Symbol, YYYY is ABA Institution Identifier, and C is the Check Digit

Routing symbol

The symbol that typically prefixes routing transit numbers has a Unicode value of U+2446 and looks like this: ⑆

If your computer cannot display this character, it may be seen [http://decodeunicode.org/w3.php?nodeId=9388&page=1&lang=2&zoom=&prop=1 here] .

Number Format and Standards

The first two digits of the nine digit ABA number must be in the ranges 00 through 12, 21 through 32, 61 through 72, or 80.

The digits are assigned as follows:
* 00 is used by the United States Government
* 01 through 12 are the "normal" routing numbers
* 21 through 32 were assigned only to thrift institutions (e.g. credit unions and savings banks) through 1985; currently are still used by the thrift institutions, or their successors
* 61 through 72 are used for electronic transactions
* 80 is used for traveler's cheques

The first two digits correspond to the 12 Federal Reserve Banks as follows:

Primary	Thrift	Electronic	Federal Reserve Bank
01	21	61	Boston
02	22	62	New York
03	23	63	Philadelphia
04	24	64	Cleveland
05	25	65	Richmond
06	26	66	Atlanta
07	27	67	Chicago
08	28	68	St. Louis
09	29	69	Minneapolis
10	30	70	Kansas City
11	31	71	Dallas
12	32	72	San Francisco

Internal checksums

The number must pass a checksum test using a position-weighted sum of each of the digits.
* The following condition must hold: . (Mod or modulo is the remainder of a division operation.)

As an example, consider 111000025 (which is a valid routing number of Bank of America in Texas). Applying the formula, we get:.

The following formula can be used to generate the 9th digit in the checksum:

Following the above example for the Texas Bank of America routing number 111000025,

Canadian transit number

Canadian transit numbers are regulated by the Canadian Payments Association. A number has the following form:: XXXXX-YYYwhere XXXXX is a Branch Number, and YYY is an Institution Number. The dash between the branch number and the institution number is an integral part of the transit number. This format is only valid for paper-type transactions such as cheques. For Electronic Fund Transactions (EFT) the current format is a leading zero, the institution number, then the branch number all with no dashes. For example if a check reads XXXXX-YYY , the corresponding EFT code would be 0YYYXXXXX.

As a general rule, Bank institution numbers start with 0, 2, 3, or 6, Credit Union and Caisse Populaire institution numbers start with 8, and Trust Company institution numbers with 5.

Examples:
* XXXXX-001 Bank of Montreal
* XXXXX-002 The Bank of Nova Scotia
* XXXXX-003 Royal Bank of Canada
* XXXXX-004 The Toronto-Dominion Bank (which is the legal name for the bank, although it operates as TD Canada Trust)
* XXXXX-006 National Bank of Canada
* XXXXX-010 Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (includes President's Choice Financial)
* XXXXX-016 HSBC Canada
* XXXXX-039 Laurentian Bank of Canada
* 00000-117 Bank of Canada (Canadian central bank)
* XXXXX-127 Canada Post (money orders)
* XXXXX-219 ATB Financial
* XXXXX-260 Citibank Canada
* XXXXX-290 UBS Bank (Canada)
* XXXXX-308 Bank of China (Canada)
* XXXXX-326 President's Choice Financial(no longer assigned)
* XXXXX-338 Canadian Tire Bank
* XXXXX-340 ICICI Bank Canada
* XXXXX-509 Canada Trust (prior to the merger of TD & Canada Trust)
* XXXXX-540 Manulife Bank
* XXXXX-614 ING Direct Canada
* XXXXX-809 Credit Union Central of British Columbia
* XXXXX-815 Caisses Desjardins du Québec
* XXXXX-819 Caisses populaires Desjardins du Manitoba
* XXXXX-828 Credit Union Central of Ontario
* XXXXX-829 Caisses populaires Desjardins de l'Ontario
* XXXXX-837 Meridian Credit Union (formerly Hepco)
* XXXXX-839 Credit Union Heritage (Nova Scotia)
* XXXXX-865 Caisses populaires Desjardins acadiennes
* XXXXX-899 Alberta credit unions

In a Canadian bank transit number, the last digit of the branch number, with few exceptions, indicates the geographical location of the branch.

Branch numbers ending with:

* 0 are located in British Columbia
* 1 are located in Western Québec including Montreal and surrounding area
* 2 are located in Ontario including Toronto and surrounding area
* 3 are located in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland excluding Labrador
* 4 are located in New Brunswick
* 5 are located in Eastern Québec including Labrador
* 6 are located in Eastern Ontario including Ottawa and surrounding area
* 7 are located in Manitoba and North-Western Ontario
* 8 are located in Saskatchewan
* 9 are located in Alberta and the Northwest Territories

For example, the number 58876-004 indicates that the associated account is held at an Eastern Ontario branch of The Toronto-Dominion Bank (58876 is the branch number, and 004 is the institution number).

Please see http://www.cdnpay.ca/rules/pdfs_rules/rule_d4.pdf for a listing of current and historical financial institution ID numbers.

ee also

General Category
* Bank code
* Sort code
* International Bank Account Number
* ISO 9362, the SWIFT/BIC code standard

Canada has similar but different transaction routing structures
* Large Value Transfer System (Canada)
* Interac

References

External links

* [http://www.accuitysolutions.com/text/aba_policy.pdf Official ABA Routing Number Policy] (PDF File)
* [http://www.federalreserve.gov/otherfrb.htm Federal Reserve Districts]
* [http://www.fedwiredirectory.frb.org/search.cfm Find banks' ABA numbers or which bank owns a given ABA number]
* [http://www.abachecker.com Bank to ABA number mapping, with expanded bank named] - e.g. "United Missouri Bank" instead of "UMB" as returned (and required when searching) by the FedWireDirectory
* [http://www.aba.com/Products/PS98_Routing.htm American Bankers Association page on ABA routing numbers]
* [http://www.routingnumbers.org Bank Routing Numbers Search] - a comprehensive routing information search engine.