IBAN

International Bank Account Number (IBAN)
The IBAN concept was developed by ECBS and by the International Organization for Standardisation (ISO) and is an internationally agreed standard. It was created as an international bank identifier, used to uniquely identify the account of a customer at a financial institution, to assist error-free cross-border customer payments, and to improve the potential for straight-through processing (STP), with a minimum amount of change within domestic schemes.
　国际银行标准账号（IBAN）不仅包括了收款人帐号，同时还包含了收款人银行，使用国际银行标准账号便于款准确抵达收款人银行，在欧欧国际银行标准账号（IBAN）是必须，另外一些国家银行对不提供IBAN非欧款也要加收手续费。目前英国还不是欧国家，向英国款不是必须有国际银行标准账号。但如果没有这一帐号，最好提供入行SORTING CODE（IBAN中包含了这一代码），这样可以加快收款速度。当然如果您是通过国内中国银行向英国中国银行款，也可仅提供收款人姓名和账号。不过如果能有IBAN是最好，IBAN一般在银行对帐单上都有显示，如不清楚，可向开户银行询问。