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🇨🇩 Sending to Congo (Democratic Republic of the)

CD · COD

CDF

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

    BCC uses a national format; the BCC General Treasury Account is a 23-digit number, and commercial-bank domestic numbers typically run 11-18 digits per institution (Rawbank, Equity BCDC, TMB, FBN, Ecobank). No IBAN.

  • SWIFT BIC

    Beneficiary bank BIC (8 or 11 characters).

  • BIC

    ISO 9362 BIC (e.g., BCCGCDK2 for BCC, BCDCCDKI for Equity BCDC); BCC also assigns national 'code banque' identifiers

  • Purpose-of-payment code (strongly advised)

    Free-text purpose (French or English); beneficiary bank may request an invoice

  • 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

    CDF

  • Typical settlement

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

  • SWIFT BIC

    Required

  • Local clearing

    RTGS (Banque Centrale du Congo)

Account format

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

Field Value
Format tier National format
Length BCC uses a national format; the BCC General Treasury Account is a 23-digit number, and commercial-bank domestic numbers typically run 11-18 digits per institution (Rawbank, Equity BCDC, TMB, FBN, Ecobank). No IBAN.
Validation regex ^[0-9]{11,23}$
Example 00010100000000000000139

Routing identifiers

Which routing codes the wire-creation API call must include for Congo (Democratic Republic of the).

Field Value
SWIFT BIC Required
BIC Required
Format ISO 9362 BIC (e.g., BCCGCDK2 for BCC, BCDCCDKI for Equity BCDC); BCC also assigns national 'code banque' identifiers
Directory ↗ Source
Local clearing RTGS (Banque Centrale du Congo)

Address format

How Congo (Democratic Republic of the) expects the beneficiary address to appear on the wire. Free-form variations frequently trigger compliance holds.

  1. Recipient Full Name
  2. Avenue, Numero
  3. Quartier
  4. Commune
  5. Ville
  6. Province
  7. DR CONGO
Field Value
Postal code Optional — this country has no postal code format
Example Avenue Tombalbaye 563, Kinshasa-Gombe, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

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 Congo (Democratic Republic of the), the purpose is placed in <RmtInf> (remittance info), not the standard <Purp> element.

Field Value
Code format Free-text purpose (French or English); beneficiary bank may request an invoice
Authoritative source ↗ View source

Operational notes

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

Known issues:

  • FATF grey-listed as of 13 February 2026 (listed since October 2022); apply enhanced due diligence per FATF guidance.
  • Highly dollarised economy; many commercial flows settle in USD via correspondent banking, increasing chain length and de-risking exposure.
  • No IBAN; account validation relies on BIC plus national 'code banque' plus domestic account number.
  • BCC modernised PROMOSYS RTGS in 2017 and launched payment-system interoperability under Instruction 58 of 2024, but national STP coverage is still limited.
  • No nationwide postal-code system in routine use.

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).
BCC FX-control documentation not provided (Reglementation du Change requires invoice or contract reference for cross-border flows).
Domestic transactions in CDF only for certain merchant categories per BCC directive; USD restrictions on POS terminals do not apply to ATMs.
Bank routing data missing the BCC-assigned national 'code banque'.

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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