Indian banking funds transfer system operates on a routing code called the IFSC code, which stands for the Indian financial system code. This is a mandatory requirement for carrying out any financial transfers for payments from one individual/firm/entity to another individual/firm/entity’s bank account.

This unique routing code for bank branches is written in the form of a unique 11 character alpha numeric code and It identifies the bank and the branch in which the account is held.

The IFSC code format for a Central Bank Of India uses 4 alphabetic characters representing the bank name, and the last six characters, representing the branch, these characters can be alphabetic or numeric as well. This branch identifier in the IFSC code is used by banks for validation, reconciliation of funds, payment transfers & other purposes.

As per the mandatory requirements, Central Bank Of India print the IFSC code of the branch, on the cheques issued to the customers. If for any reason the branch of a particular bank is moved to another location then the IFSC code of that branch may not change.

In case the banks identity changes due to merger or an acquisition, the banks usually change the IFSC code. In such a case if the transaction of fund transfer between two entities is carried out with old IFSC code, the transaction may still happen however there may be a delay in the funds to gets reflected in the recipients bank account.

This IFSC code is used for different ways of transferring money, and it enables the individual or firm or corporate to electronically transfer funds from any bank branch to similar entity- individual, firm or corporate in real time in their bank account.

There are three kinds of transfer, fastest being IMPS transfer which stands for Immediate Payment service and is commonly known as the Interbank Mobile Payment service, this service uses IFSC code of the branch of a particular bank to transfer funds instantly.

Second kind of transfer is RTGS transfer, here RTGS stands for Real Time Gross Settlement, and is a continuous (Real time) settlement of fund s transfer individually on an order by order basis, here too like in IMPS transfer you would require an IFSC code to make a transfer to that bank.

Third and he most common type of fund transfer facility used is NEFT, which stands for National Electronic Funds Transfer, in this case the funds are not transferred in real time but are settled in batches to recipient. This system is again based on IFSC code.

Looking back in the banking history, both RTGS introduced in year 2004, and National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) introduced in the year 2005, were based on IFSC code system.

The IFSC code is also used in case of different kinds of transactions, for example, payment of credit cards, payment of Loan EMIs etc.. In these cases the IFSC code and account number as specified by the card issuing bank or loan disbursing bank is provided to the customer to make the payment.