HSBC international transfers

Before sending any funds, please double check the beneficiary (payee) details with the person or business you’re paying. You’ll usually need:

• The payee’s full name (as shown on their bank account) – maximum 35 characters
• The payee’s address, including city or town and country or region
• IBAN or bank account number (depending on the destination country)
• SWIFT/BIC or local bank code (to identify the payee’s bank)

How to find the SWIFT/BIC or local bank code

• Ask the payee to request it from their bank, or
• Check the payee bank’s official website

Important:

• If the payee’s name is over 35 characters, please check with the payee for a shortened or abbreviated name that their bank can accept for crediting the funds. If a shorter format isn’t available, please visit the nearest HSBC branch and we can support you to submit the payment via Telegraphic Transfer (TT) using a paper form.
• Please make sure you enter the details correctly. If any details are incorrect, the transfer may be delayed, rejected, returned or credited to the wrong account. HSBC can't verify whether the payee's name matches the account number/IBAN, SWIFT/BIC or local bank code and we may not be able to recover funds sent using incorrect details.

Please refer to our banking tariff for detailed of correspondent bank charge which varies for different scenario.

Please note the correspondent bank charge in our banking tariff, where applicable, covers the charge of the first correspondent bank only.

All other fees which may be charged by all other banks (including but not limited to all correspondent bank charges of all involved domestic or overseas correspondent banks; or handling fees of all involved domestic or overseas correspondent banks upon rejected remittance, and more) shall be borne by the customers.

All these incurring fees are not part of HSBC Vietnam’s quoted tariff or under HSBC Vietnam’s control.

Most banks have their own SWIFT or BIC code.

BIC stands for Business Identifier Code, (sometimes also called Bank Identifier Code or a Bank International Code).

You might also see BIC referred to as a SWIFT code because it’s used on the SWIFT system (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication). In practice, SWIFT and BIC refer to the same code.

A SWIFT or BIC code is 8 or 11 characters and helps identify:

When entering beneficiary bank details for an international transfer, you’ll need a SWIFT or BIC. If you don’t have it, please ask the payee or check the payee bank’s official website.

If you’re sending it in a different currency (cross-currency payments)

If you’re sending it in a different currency to the countries above (e.g. sending USD to the UK), or sending to a country not listed, you’ll usually need a SWIFT/BIC code.

To help avoid delays or return payments, please confirm the required bank details with your payee (and, where possible, the payee bank) before submitting your payment.

Note: Examples above are for illustration only and don’t represent real bank codes.

IBAN stands for International Bank Account Number. It’s used in many countries (especially in Europe) to identify a customer’s bank account for international payments.

When do you need an IBAN?

What does an IBAN look like?

An IBAN starts with a two-letter country code, followed by a combination of letters and numbers (up to 34 characters). The length varies by country. Your payee (or their bank) can provide the correct IBAN.

Example IBAN (UK): GB15 HBUK 401276 12345678

What do the letters and numbers mean?

An intermediary bank (also known as a correspondent bank) is a bank that helps route an international payment between HSBC and the payee’s bank. This is often needed when there’s no direct relationship between the two banks or when certain currencies require additional routing.

Intermediary banks may carry out processing and compliance checks, and fees may be deducted along the payment route. This can affect the processing time and the final amount received by the payee.

HSBC doesn’t use one fixed intermediary bank for all payments. The intermediary bank can vary from one transaction to another, depending on the destination country, currency, the payee’s bank, and the available payment routing at the time of processing.

On the HSBC Vietnam app, you typically won’t be able to select an intermediary bank. Payment routing is generally determined by the currency, destination, payee’s bank and HSBC’s correspondent network, as well as processing and compliance requirements.

If you have a specific routing requirement, please check with the beneficiary for full intermediate bank details and visit the nearest HSBC branch to submit the transfer via Telegraphic Transfer (TT) using a paper form. Routing may still be subject to processing constraints and may not always be guaranteed.

Yes. In some cases, an international payment is rejected or returned. To help avoid this, check the payee’s account details carefully and make sure you enter all required information before you confirm the transfer.

Common reasons for rejection include:

This list isn’t exhaustive.

If a payment is returned

If a payment is returned to HSBC or can’t be completed, we’ll return the funds to your account. If foreign exchange is required, the return will be processed using the HSBC exchange rate at the time of return. As a result, the returned amount may be higher or lower than the original amount sent.

If your transfer involves a foreign exchange conversion, the FX rate shown when you submit the transfer may be indicative. The actual exchange rate applied will be the rate available at the time we process your transfer. This means the final amount debited (or the amount received) may be different from what you saw earlier.

To be processed on the same business day, your payment must be submitted by 3pm (on the Bank’s working day). Make sure you’ve also provided all the necessary supporting documents (if requested).

Payments submitted after the cut-off time, on weekends, public holidays, or without the necessary documents, will be processed on the next business day.