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:

for MICR-encoded documents for electronic funds transfers

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. TD and Bank of Montreal use four-digit branch numbers, reserving the final digit of the transit number for the geographical location of the branch.

While there is variation between institutions, most transit numbers encode geographic region into the last digit using a pattern like:

for British Columbia and Yukon for western Quebec, including Montreal. Some institutions include Gatineau here, others group it with Ottawa. for most of Ontario, including Toronto and Southern Ontario for Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island. Some institutions list Newfoundland or Labrador here. for New Brunswick for eastern Quebec including Quebec City for Ottawa and its surrounding area. for Manitoba and north-western Ontario, including Thunder Bay. for Saskatchewan for Alberta, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut

Under this pattern, the first branch of the first bank to have national operations (Banque de Montréal, 119, rue Saint Jacques, Montréal) would have the branch number 0001, the region number 1 (due to being located in western Québec), and the institution number 001, yielding the MICR code .

BMO and TD do not consider the fifth digit of the transit number to be part of the branch number and will not create five-digit codes for different branches which differ only in the final, fifth digit. If Montreal is then the next site (First Canadian Place Toronto) is , with remaining permanently unassigned. Likewise, the electronic routing number for a branch of either TD Bank or BMO will start with a , followed successively by the 3-digit institution number, the 4-digit branch number, and the single-digit number for the region in which the bank is located. For example, the routing number of a TD Bank branch with the branch number situated in Scarborough, Ontario, is : [Start off] [institution number] [branch number] [because the branch is in Ontario].

RBC also uses four-digit branch numbers, but these include the last digit, with the transit numbers instead being padded with leading zeroes. While some older branches happen to adhere to the pattern above, it has been abandoned for many newer RBC branches, apparently to limit RBC's branch transit numbers to four digits.

Desjardins uses all five digits as significant with no region coding in the fifth digit.

Most small local credit unions use the institution number to indicate a "Credit Union Central" organisation for a specific province; the transit number indicates a specific branch of a specific member institution. As transit numbers are issued arbitrarily or sequentially, multiple branches of the same credit union typically do not get assigned a contiguous block of numbers. While the province may be embedded in the transit number, the info is superfluous; a small Ontario credit union will be regardless of its location in-province.

Financial institution numbers

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

Bank Name Institution Number Bank of Montreal (operating as BMO) 001 Bank of Nova Scotia (operating as Scotiabank) 002 Royal Bank of Canada (operating as RBC) 003 Toronto-Dominion Bank (operating as TD Canada Trust) 004 National Bank of Canada 006 Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC includes Simplii Financial) 010 HSBC Canada 016 Canadian Western Bank 030 Laurentian Bank of Canada 039 Government of Canada 117 Canada Post (money orders) 127 Bank of Canada (Canadian central bank) 177 Canada Savings Bond (redemptions) 187 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 320 Canadian Tire Bank 338 ICICI Bank Canada 340 Digital Commerce Bank 352 Canada Trust Company (for accounts opened prior to the TD Canada Trust merger) 509 Manulife Bank 540 Alterna Bank 608 Tangerine Bank (formerly ING Direct Canada) 614 B2B Bank 618 Wise_(company) 621 Equitable Bank (includes EQ Bank) 623 Wealthsimple (for its bank-like Cash accounts) 703 Central 1 Credit Union member institutions in British Columbia 809 Caisses Desjardins du Québec 815 Caisse Populaire financial group (Manitoba) 819 Central 1 Credit Union member institutions in Ontario 828 Caisses populaires Desjardins de l'Ontario 829 Meridian Credit Union 837 Atlantic Central member institutions 839 Alterna Savings and Credit Union 842 Atlantic Central (Brunswick Credit Union Federation) 849 Caisses populaires acadiennes (New Brunswick) 865 Central 1 (former Credit Union Central of Canada) 869 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.

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.

See also International Bank Account Number ABA routing transit number, American bank code format Bank State Branch, Australian bank code format Bankleitzahl, Austrian and German bank code format New Zealand bank account prefix Sort code, British and Irish bank code formats

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