What is IFSC Code

This is the second post in the series of Jargons of Online Banking.

IFSC stands for Indian Financial System Code.

It is used as the addressing code in user-to-user message transmission. The Payment System Applications such as RTGS, and NEFT developed by the Reserve Bank of India use these codes.

The code consists of 11 Characters - First 4 characters represent the entity, Fifth position has been defaulted with a '0', and last 6 characters denote the branch identity.

When all the bank branches participate in electronic payment systems, they would need to have a single identifiable unique code and IFSC would serve the purpose effectively.

IFSC code list can be found here. It seems RBI has not put this list on their site. Or if I am unable to find it, please help me.