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🇧🇾 Sending to Belarus

BY · BLR · +375 · Eastern Europe

BYN

Restricted — sanctions   IBAN required   SWIFT BIC required

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Sanctions Restrictions

GIB does not process payments to this destination. Submissions will be blocked by sanctions screening. Any exception requires written pre-authorization from GIB Compliance before submission.

Required information

  • IBAN

    28 characters (BY + 26), e.g. BY13NBRB3600900000002Z00AB00.

  • SWIFT BIC

    Beneficiary bank BIC (8 or 11 characters).

  • Purpose-of-payment code (strongly advised)

    Free-text purpose in words (no code list)

  • Beneficiary full name

    Spelled out exactly as registered at the bank. No initials or abbreviations.

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 2026-05-19. Reference material only.

  • Currency

    BYN

  • Typical settlement

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

  • SWIFT BIC

    Required

  • Local clearing

    BISS (NBRB)

Account format

How beneficiary account numbers are structured for Belarus. Failure to match this format is the single most common reason wires are rejected at the destination.

Field Value
Format tier IBAN required
Length 28 characters (BY + 26)
Validation regex ^BY[0-9]{2}[0-9A-Za-z]{4}[0-9]{4}[0-9A-Za-z]{16}$
Example BY13NBRB3600900000002Z00AB00

Routing identifiers

Which routing codes the wire-creation API call must include for Belarus.

Field Value
SWIFT BIC Required
MFO Optional
Format 3-9 digits MFO bank code
Directory ↗ Source
Local clearing BISS (NBRB)

Counterparty fields

Party details the destination expects on the beneficiary. Mandatory fields are required by the destination; recommended fields reduce the chance of a delay or return.

Recommended:

  • Local bank code (CdtrAgt/FinInstnId/ClrSysMmbId/MmbId) — 3-9 digits MFO bank code
  • Beneficiary identifier, such as a tax or registration number (Cdtr/Id/OrgId/Othr/Id or Cdtr/Id/PrvtId/Othr/Id, with SchmeNm) — tax ID

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 Belarus, the purpose is placed in <RmtInf> (remittance info), not the standard <Purp> element.

Field Value
Code format Free-text purpose in words (no code list)
Authoritative source ↗ View source

Remittance info

Extra content the regulator requires inside the free-text remittance field, beyond the purpose-of-payment code.

Payment purpose must be clearly identified.

Operational notes

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

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).

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.

IBAN check

Format: ^BY[0-9]{2}[0-9A-Za-z]{4}[0-9]{4}[0-9A-Za-z]{16}$ · MOD-97 (ISO 13616) check digit verified locally.

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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