What is eSortcode?

Why Validate Account Numbers against their Sorting Code?

Validating the sorting code and account details of transactions has many benefits including helping to reduce the number of transactions needing returned.

For instance, Account Validation allows originators of transactions for the BACS clearing service to validate the account details quoted in their payment instructions before submission.

This validation saves time and money because it significantly decreases the number of erroneous transactions.

What is Modulus Checking?

To ensure the validity of Account Numbers for a sorting code the financial institutions use modulus checking methods and these methods differ from institution to institution.

Why use eSortcode?

The ValidateAccount method of the eSortcode.com web service encapsulates these Modulus Checks and updates these checks whenever any changes are made by the financial institutions.

The table below shows the Institutions covered by the eSortcode.com ValidateAccount method.

Abbey	Alliance and Leicester	Allied Irish
Bank of England	Bank of Ireland	Bank of Scotland
Barclays	Bradford and Bingley Building Society	Citibank
Clydesdale	Co-operative Bank	First Trust
Halifax	HSBC	Lloyds TSB
National & Provincial Building Society	NatWest	Nationwide Building Society
Northern	Royal Bank of Scotland	Ulster Bank
Woolwich	Yorkshire Bank

Abbey

Alliance and Leicester

Allied Irish

Bank of England

Bank of Ireland

Bank of Scotland

Barclays

Bradford and Bingley Building Society

Citibank

Clydesdale

Co-operative Bank

First Trust

Halifax

HSBC

Lloyds TSB

National & Provincial Building Society

NatWest

Nationwide Building Society

Northern

Royal Bank of Scotland

Ulster Bank

Woolwich

Yorkshire Bank

Note: accounts of institutions that are not covered by this document should be assumed to be valid.

Note: If the modulus check shows the account number as valid, this means that the account number is a possible account number for that sorting code but is not necessarily in use.