BIC stands for Business Identifier Code, which is an international standard for routing business transactions and identifying business parties. It is a unique identifier for a specific financial institution, composed of a 4-character bank code, a 2-character country code, a 2-character location code, and an optional 3-character branch code. BICs are used by financial institutions for letters of credit, payments, securities transactions, and other business messages between banks.

BIC is also known as SWIFT-BIC, SWIFT ID, or SWIFT code, after the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), which is designated by ISO as the BIC registration authority. BIC was originally defined as Bank Identifier Code and is most often assigned to financial organizations; when it is assigned to non-financial organizations, the code may also be known as Business Entity Identifier (BEI) .

The BIC is used for addressing messages, routing business transactions, and identifying business parties. It is an 8 to 11-character code that identifies a specific bank when making an international transaction. BIC codes are essential for anyone who needs to send international payments, and they are used to ensure that your payment goes to the right bank.

In summary, BIC is a unique identifier for a specific financial institution that is used for routing business transactions and identifying business parties. It is an international standard for which such an identifier is required to facilitate automated processing of information.