Routing number (Canada)

A routing number is the term for bank codes in Canada. Routing numbers consist of eight numerical digits with a dash between the fifth and sixth digit for paper financial documents encoded with magnetic ink character recognition and nine numerical digits without dashes for electronic funds transfers. Routing numbers are regulated by Payments Canada, formerly known as the Canadian Payments Association, to allow easy identification of the branch location and financial institution associated with an account.

Format

A routing number consists of a five digit transit number (also called branch number) identifying the branch where an account is held and a three digit financial institution number corresponding to the financial institution. The number is given as one of the following forms, where XXXXX is the transit number and YYY is the financial institution number:

A leading zero is used when formatting a routing number for electronic payments.

Routing symbol

The symbol that delimits a routing number on MICR-encoded paper documents is the E-13B transit character (Unicode value U+2446): ⑆

Transit numbers

Each branch in a financial institution is assigned a unique transit number for identification. The format of the transit number may vary by institution. Most institutions use the transit number and branch number synonymously; however Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD Canada Trust) uses four-digit branch numbers, reserving the final digit of the transit number for the geographical location of the branch:

Therefore, a (fictional) routing number 45676-004 would indicate that the associated account is held at a TD Canada Trust branch (number 4567) located in eastern Ontario.

While some other institutions use the same or similar patterns for the last digit of the transit number, it is not applied consistently. For example, all transit numbers for Bank of Montreal in Newfoundland and Labrador end in "1", while those for Scotiabank in that province end in "3" (including for branches in Labrador) instead of the split used by TD. Meanwhile, RBC also uses four-digit branch numbers, but these include the last digit, with the transit numbers instead being padded with leading zeroes (and only a handful of non-branch transits using a leading "1" instead).[1] While some older branches happen to adhere to the pattern above, it has been abandoned for many newer RBC branches, apparently in order to limit its branch transit numbers to four digits.

Financial institution numbers

A selection of institution numbers for major Canadian financial institutions is below.

Bank NameInstitution Number
Bank of Montreal 001
Bank of Nova Scotia (operating as Scotiabank) 002
Royal Bank of Canada 003
Toronto-Dominion Bank (operating as TD Canada Trust) 004
National Bank of Canada 006
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (includes Simplii Financial) 010
HSBC Canada 016
Canadian Western Bank 030
Laurentian Bank of Canada 039
Government of Canada[lower-alpha 1] 117
Canada Post (money orders) 127
Bank of Canada (Canadian central bank) 177
ATB Financial 219
MUFG Bank, Canada Branch 245
Citibank Canada 260
Mega International Commercial Bank Canada 269
JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. (Toronto Branch) 270
Bank of China (Canada) 308
Vancity Community Investment Bank 309
First Nations Bank of Canada 310
CTBC Bank (Canada) 315
President's Choice Bank[lower-alpha 2] 320
Canadian Tire Bank 338
ICICI Bank Canada 340
Digital Commerce Bank 352
The Canada Trust Company (in use for accounts opened prior to the merger of TD & Canada Trust) 509
Manulife Bank 540
CS Alterna Bank 608
Tangerine Bank (formerly ING Direct Canada) 614
B2B Bank 618
Equitable Bank (includes EQ Bank) 623
Central 1 Credit Union member institutions in British Columbia 809
Caisses Desjardins du Québec 815
Caisses populaires Desjardins du Manitoba 819
Central 1 Credit Union member institutions in Ontario 828
Caisses populaires Desjardins de l'Ontario 829
Meridian Credit Union 837
Credit Union Heritage (Nova Scotia) 839
Alterna Savings and Credit Union 842
Caisses populaires Desjardins acadiennes 865
Credit Union Central of Manitoba member institutions 879
Credit Union Central of Saskatchewan (SaskCentral) member institutions 889
Credit Union Central of Alberta member institutions 899

Directories of routing numbers

Payments Canada maintains the Financial Institutions File (FIF), an electronic directory of routing numbers for all financial institutions in Canada. The FIF is updated weekly and is operated as a fee-based subscription service to member institutions of Payments Canada.[3]

A companion free-of-charge directory, the Financial Institutions Branch Directory (FIBD), is also operated by Payments Canada for occasional referencing by the general public. The FIBD is only available in PDF format and cannot be imported into business applications.[4]

See also

Notes
  1. Not a member of Payments Canada
  2. Not affiliated with President's Choice Financial's former consumer banking operations. PC Financial's bank accounts were operated by CIBC so all accounts used CIBC's 010 institution number. Following the end of PC Financial and CIBC's joint venture, all PC Financial consumer bank accounts were transferred to Simplii Financial.[2]

References
  1. "Financial Institutions Branch Directory (Banks - Numeric List)" (PDF). Payments Canada. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
  2. "CIBC takes over banking business from PC Financial, renames bank Simplii". CBC News. Retrieved 2018-01-08.
  3. "Financial Institutions File". Payments Canada. 11 August 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
  4. "Financial Institutions Branch Directory". Payments Canada. 12 August 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
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