UAE to begin using IBAN for transactions from November 19

Dubai: The Central Bank of the UAE yesterday announced the introduction of the International Bank Account Number (IBAN) as a standard for identifying all bank accounts in the UAE, starting from November 19, 2011.

The IBAN will be applicable to all account categories across banks in the UAE for making payments and for receiving payments to accounts.

As part of the transition to this new system, all bank account holders in the UAE will be provided with a unique 23-digit account number, for each of their accounts which will replace their existing account number for all transaction purposes. All banks across the country are responsible for the distribution of IBAN to their respective account holders.

"Introduction of the IBAN is a strategic initiative that will further align the UAE banking system with standards applied in other global banking systems. The adoption of IBAN is a step in the direction towards increasing the efficiency of electronic payments in the UAE, while further strengthening the country's status as a global financial centre," the Central Bank said in a statement. "Banks have been working closely with the Central Bank over several months to roll out IBAN. Sufficient preparation has gone into the introduction and November 19 is a reasonable deadline," said the retail banking head of a UAE-based bank.

Within the next three weeks, customers will be provided with new 23-digit account numbers. The main purpose of IBAN is to facilitate the automatic processing of money transfers, to improve the speed and accuracy of transactions.

The 23-character IBAN in the UAE will include 2 letter alphabetic country code that will be ‘AE' for all accounts in the UAE, two digit check code, 3 digit bank code and 16 digit account number.