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🇧🇴 Sending to Bolivia (Plurinational State of)

BO · BOL

BOB

FATF grey list   National format   SWIFT BIC required

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FATF Increased Monitoring

This jurisdiction is on the FATF list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring. FATF does not call for enhanced due diligence on that basis, but asks institutions to take the listing into account in their risk analysis.

Required information

  • Account number

    Numeric, varies by bank (typically 10-15 digits). No standardized national format; ASFI does not mandate a single structure.

  • SWIFT BIC

    Beneficiary bank BIC (8 or 11 characters).

  • BIC/SWIFT

    8 or 11-char ISO 9362 BIC required for cross-border (e.g. BNBOBOLXXXX). No domestic sort/routing code analog.

  • Purpose-of-payment code (strongly advised)

    Free-text narrative; BCB publishes no purpose code list for inbound cross-border wires

  • Beneficiary address

    Match the address template — partial addresses cause holds.

For your end users

Double-check the beneficiary's full name (no initials), account number, and bank SWIFT/BIC against what their bank has on file. International wires can take 1-5 business days and may be delayed by sanctions screening.

Last reviewed by GIB compliance on 2026-05-21. Reference material only.

  • Currency

    BOB

  • Typical settlement

    1-2 business days typical; longer for cross-border with FX or compliance review.

  • SWIFT BIC

    Required

  • Local clearing

    LIP / SIPAV — Sistema de Pagos de Alto Valor (Banco Central de Bolivia)

Account format

How beneficiary account numbers are structured for Bolivia (Plurinational State of). Failure to match this format is the single most common reason wires are rejected at the destination.

Field Value
Format tier National format
Length Numeric, varies by bank (typically 10-15 digits). No standardized national format; ASFI does not mandate a single structure.
Validation regex ^[0-9]{10,15}$
Example 1000123456

Routing identifiers

Which routing codes the wire-creation API call must include for Bolivia (Plurinational State of).

Field Value
SWIFT BIC Required
BIC/SWIFT Required
Format 8 or 11-char ISO 9362 BIC required for cross-border (e.g. BNBOBOLXXXX). No domestic sort/routing code analog.
Directory ↗ Source
Local clearing LIP / SIPAV — Sistema de Pagos de Alto Valor (Banco Central de Bolivia)

Address format

How Bolivia (Plurinational State of) expects the beneficiary address to appear on the wire. Free-form variations frequently trigger compliance holds.

  1. Recipient Full Name
  2. Street + Number
  3. Zone/Barrio (optional)
  4. City
  5. Department
  6. BOLIVIA
Field Value
Postal code Optional — this country has no postal code format
Example Juan Perez, Calle Sucre 123, La Paz, BOLIVIA

Purpose of payment

Put the purpose in the remittance information (<RmtInf><Ustrd>) of the ISO 20022 wire-creation request, as the code format below describes. Requirement: Highly recommended GIB check: a missing or unexpected purpose is reported as a validation warning; the wire is not held.

Not yet confirmed

We have not yet confirmed this country's purpose-of-payment requirement against a central-bank or correspondent-bank source. Including a purpose is recommended. We update these guides as we confirm each country.

Non-standard element

For Bolivia (Plurinational State of), the purpose is placed in <RmtInf> (remittance info), not the standard <Purp> element.

Field Value
Code format Free-text narrative; BCB publishes no purpose code list for inbound cross-border wires

Operational notes

Field Value
Currencies accepted BOB
Typical settlement 1-2 business days typical; longer for cross-border with FX or compliance review.
Banking holidays ↗ Calendar

Known issues:

  • FATF grey-listed since June 2025; correspondent banks typically apply enhanced due diligence (EDD) and may require additional source-of-funds documentation.
  • EU added Bolivia to its high-risk third-country list in Dec 2025, triggering AMLD obligations for EU-regulated counterparties.
  • No IBAN; no national standardized account format — account length and structure vary by bank.
  • BCB SIPAV is domestic-only; cross-border wires settle via correspondent banking.
  • Bolivianos (BOB) is not freely deliverable offshore; most international wires settle in USD.

Common rejection reasons

Documented patterns that cause this country's banks to return wires. Universal reasons (sanctions holds, missing BIC) aren't repeated here.

Beneficiary name mismatch (initials, abbreviations, punctuation, or transliteration differences from what the beneficiary bank has on file).
Account number format error (wrong length, wrong check digits, or non-standard characters).
Missing or invalid SWIFT/BIC code.
Insufficient remittance information (unclear economic reason for the payment).
Sanctions or compliance hold (OFAC / EU / UN / local screening).
Beneficiary name/CI (cedula de identidad) mismatch with ASFI-registered account holder.
Missing BCB cross-border declaration for inbound USD wires above local thresholds.
Currency mismatch (BOB vs USD account designation must be explicit).

Validate before you send

Check identifiers before you submit. The IBAN check runs in your browser (format plus the ISO 13616 MOD-97 check digit). GIB's API checks the IBAN format for countries where an IBAN is required. The BIC lookup searches GIB's BIC directory and needs a dashboard login.

BIC lookup

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References

First-party sources — central banks, FX regulators, ISO registries. Always re-verify against these before pushing volume to a new corridor.

Disclaimer

These country guides aggregate information from central banks, regulators, and industry-standard references. Global Innovations Bank reviews them on a rolling cadence and notes the verification date on each page. Payment-corridor rules change between releases, so we cannot guarantee continued accuracy.

Always verify against the primary sources linked in the References section before going live in a new corridor. Re-check applicable sanctions lists (OFAC, EU, UK, UN consolidated, and any state-level requirements) at the time of payment, since designations shift between our refreshes.

For fintech partners on GIB's sponsor-bank rails, these guides do not replace your BSA/AML, KYC, sanctions-screening, or transaction-monitoring obligations under your program agreement with GIB.

Nothing in this material constitutes legal, tax, or regulatory advice, and wire-acceptance decisions remain at the discretion of GIB Compliance and the destination bank.

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