What does IBANforge validate?

IBANforge validates IBAN structure (ISO 13616 mod-97 check digits + country-specific BBAN), resolves the associated BIC/SWIFT against 121,197 GLEIF entries, looks up Swiss BC-Nummer / IID against 1,190 SIX BankMaster entries, classifies the issuer (bank, EMI, vIBAN provider, neobank), and flags SEPA Instant + VoP (Verification of Payee, EU 2024/886) reachability.

How much does IBANforge cost?

Pay-per-call in USDC via x402: 0.005 USDC for IBAN validation, 0.003 USDC for BIC lookup, 0.003 USDC for Swiss BC-Nummer lookup, 0.002 USDC per IBAN in batch mode, 0.02 USDC for full compliance check. Or use an API key for 200 free requests per month.

Does IBANforge support MCP (Model Context Protocol)?

Yes. IBANforge ships an official MCP server (com.ibanforge/mcp) with 5 tools: validate_iban, batch_validate_iban, lookup_bic, lookup_ch_clearing, check_compliance. Install in Claude Desktop, Cursor, Cline or any MCP-compatible client via npx or streamable-HTTP at https://api.ibanforge.com/mcp.

Does IBANforge support x402 for autonomous AI agents?

Yes. Every paid endpoint accepts x402 micropayments in USDC on Base L2. Agents discover pricing via /.well-known/x402, pay autonomously and call the API without human onboarding. Listed on Coinbase Bazaar discovery.

How many countries does IBANforge cover?

All 84 countries with a standardized IBAN format, including the full SEPA zone, the UK, Switzerland, and most of MENA and Latin America with IBAN coverage.

What is vIBAN detection and why does it matter?

A virtual IBAN (vIBAN) is an IBAN issued by an EMI or fintech (e.g., Wise, Revolut, Mercury, Modulr) that maps to an underlying account at a partner bank. Detecting vIBANs matters for compliance: VoP often fails on vIBANs and EMI exposure changes the risk profile. IBANforge classifies 30+ known issuer prefixes.

Where does the BIC and Swiss clearing data come from?

BIC/SWIFT data: 121,197 entries from GLEIF (Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation), enriched with LEI codes. Swiss data: 1,190 BC-Nummern from the official SIX BankMaster CSV — the canonical source used by the Swiss banking industry.

Does IBANforge replace a regulated AML/sanctions screening provider?

No. The /v1/iban/compliance endpoint runs OFAC/EU/UN list checks and produces a risk score (0-100) — useful for triage and pre-flight screening. For regulated AML/CFT obligations use a regulated vendor like Refinitiv World-Check, Acuris or ComplyAdvantage.

How fast is IBANforge?

p99 latency under 50ms for /v1/iban/validate (single IBAN). All databases are SQLite WAL with in-process reads — no external lookups. Batch endpoint scales linearly to 100 IBANs per request.

Is IBANforge open-source?

The MCP server (ibanforge-mcp), the SDK (@ibanforge/sdk) and the OpenAPI spec are open-source on GitHub at github.com/cammac-creator/ibanforge. The hosted API and proprietary issuer classification dataset are commercial.

Free IBAN Format Endpoint: Pay Only for What's Actually Worth Paying For | IBANforge Blog

Name: IBANforge
Price: 0.005 USDC

We just shipped GET /v1/iban/format — a free endpoint that does pure-format IBAN checking. Mod-97 plus the country-specific BBAN structure, and that's it.

The new endpoint is available at:

https://api.ibanforge.com/v1/iban/format?iban=CH9300762011623852957

No API key, no payment, no quota — just rate-limited like every other public route.

Why this exists

If you're an agent processing 10,000 IBANs a day from a customer CSV, paying $0.005 per call to learn that 2,400 of them are malformed strings is a poor use of your budget. You'd rather:

Run them through a free format check first
Discard the obvious garbage
Pay for the meaningful enrichment (BIC, SEPA, VoP, sanctions, Swiss BC-Nummer) only on the IBANs that survive

That's the workflow /v1/iban/format enables.

What it returns

Success path:

{
  "iban": "CH9300762011623852957",
  "formatted": "CH93 0076 2011 6238 5295 7",
  "valid": true,
  "country": { "code": "CH", "name": "Switzerland" },
  "check_digits": "93",
  "bban": {
    "bank_code": "00762",
    "account_number": "011623852957"
  },
  "upgrade_to_full_validation": "POST /v1/iban/validate ($0.005) — adds BIC, SEPA, VoP, sanctions, Swiss BC-Nummer."
}

Failure paths return valid: false with one of these error codes:

invalid_format — non-alphanumeric characters
unsupported_country — the country code isn't a recognized IBAN country
wrong_length — IBAN doesn't match the expected length for its country code
checksum_failed — mod-97 check failed (the IBAN was probably mistyped)

What it does NOT return

No bic, bank_name, lei, address
No sepa.reachable, no sepa.instant
No vop.participant
No risk_score, no sanctions screening, no FATF flag
No Swiss BC-Nummer, SIC participation, QR-IID

For all of that, use POST /v1/iban/validate ($0.005) or POST /v1/iban/compliance ($0.02).

When to use which

| Situation | Endpoint | Cost | |---|---|---| | Client-side form validation | /v1/iban/format | free | | Pre-filter a CSV before payout triage | /v1/iban/format | free | | Real payout, need bank info | /v1/iban/validate | $0.005 | | Cross-border SEPA + sanctions check | /v1/iban/compliance | $0.02 | | Bulk dedup of customer DB | /v1/iban/batch | $0.002/IBAN |

Every response from the free format endpoint includes an upgrade_to_full_validation hint pointing to the paid endpoint, so agents that need more depth can transition without a separate doc lookup.

Spec source

ISO 13616:

Mod-97 over the rearranged + numericized IBAN, valid if remainder = 1
Country-specific BBAN length and structure (75+ countries supported)
Check digit positions 3-4

Same algorithm, same library code as the paid /v1/iban/validate — we just skip the database lookups and the enrichment fields.

Try it

curl 'https://api.ibanforge.com/v1/iban/format?iban=CH9300762011623852957'

Free for the next 200 requests, the next 2,000, the next 200,000 — there's no quota on this one.