In Canada, a bank routing number is two numbers together: a 5-digit transit number for the branch and a 3-digit institution number for the bank or credit union. A payer also needs your account number, which says which account the money goes to. This page explains each number, the two ways they are written, where to find yours and how to read them on a cheque. Each bank’s own numbers are on its page, listed next.
Your bank’s numbers
Each bank page gives that bank’s institution number, where its app and online banking show your transit and account numbers, its void cheque and its SWIFT code.
- RBC
- TD
- BMO
- CIBC
- Scotiabank
- Desjardins caisses
- Other banks and credit unions, by institution number, with sections for National Bank, Simplii and Tangerine
- SWIFT codes, for money from abroad
What is a bank routing number in Canada?
Payments Canada’s wire payment guide gives a branch’s routing information as two numbers: A 3-digit institution number and a 5-digit branch transit number. The institution number names the financial institution, and the transit number names the branch where the account is held. The list of institution numbers gives the numbers of the main banks, several credit unions and the online accounts.
With your account number, these numbers guide a payment from the payer’s account to yours; Payments Canada’s direct deposit guide calls the set “your banking information”. The five digits also go by “branch number”, and one bank’s page calls the institution number the “bank number”. Payments Canada’s electronic payment standard calls the combined number the Direct Payment Routing Number (DPRN).
A form may ask for the three numbers separately or for one combined routing number, which is the electronic form under how a routing number is written.
Is the branch number the same as the transit number?
Yes: the five digits a form calls the branch number are the ones banks call the transit number, and banks’ own pages use both names. Payments Canada’s wire guide calls them the “branch transit number”. Its cheque standard calls the same five digits the “branch number” and uses “transit number” for the eight digits, branch and institution together. Where to read yours is under where you can find your numbers.
What is the account number?
The account number identifies your own account, while the transit and institution numbers identify the branch and institution that hold it, so a payer asks for the account number as well as the routing information. Payments Canada's cheque standard leaves the dashes and blanks inside the account number to each institution. The lengths banks state are on their pages, listed above.
How is a routing number written?
Payments Canada’s standards write the same two numbers in two orders, one for cheques and one for electronic payments:
- On a cheque (the cheque standard): Transit number, a dash, then institution number: 8 digits. In that standard, “transit number” means the group of eight digits, branch and institution together.
- Electronic, the 9-digit form (the electronic payment standard): A leading zero, then the institution number, then the transit number: 9 digits.
The same branch in both forms, with illustrative numbers:
- On a cheque: Transit number, a dash, then institution number (5 + 3 = 8 digits), for example 12345-004
- Electronic: A leading zero, then the institution number, then the transit number (0 + 3 + 5 = 9 digits), for example 000412345
Each bank’s page, listed above, shows its own number in both forms.
Where can you find your numbers?
- Online banking. Payments Canada says many online banking services give account holders their direct deposit information. Many online banking services provide a direct deposit form you can download and use in place of a void cheque. The void cheque page covers that form, and each bank’s page names the screen.
- A cheque. Payments Canada’s direct deposit guide says where your banking information usually is: The line of numbers printed across the bottom of your cheques. Reading that line is explained below.
- No cheque. Payments Canada’s guide says your financial institution will give you the information you need.
- Each bank’s own steps: RBC, TD, BMO, CIBC, Scotiabank and Desjardins.
- Checking numbers someone gave you. Payments Canada’s wire payment guide points a payer to its Financial Institutions Branch Directory to verify routing information for most Canadian financial institutions.
How do you read the numbers on a cheque?
The line along the bottom edge of a cheque is printed in magnetic ink for machines to read; Payments Canada’s cheque standard calls the technology Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR). The standard sets out the order of its fields. From left to right: the cheque's serial number, the transit number field (transit, a dash, then the institution number), then the account number; the space at the far right is for the amount, which the cheque printer leaves blank.
Small printed symbols mark the groups: one marks the edges of the transit field, another comes before the account number and around the serial number. The serial number can be missing, since the standard recommends it without requiring it. The account number’s dashes and blanks depend on the institution, as the account number section explains.
An illustrative line (the numbers are examples):
0042 12345-004 1234567
Reading from the left: cheque number 0042, then transit 12345 and institution 004 joined by a dash, then account number 1234567.
A void cheque is one of your blank cheques marked VOID, so it carries the same line.
How is a Canadian routing number different from a US one?
A US routing number, also called an ABA number, is defined in the Federal Reserve Banks’ operating circular on account relationships as: A nine-digit number the American Bankers Association's registrar assigns to identify a US financial institution. A Canadian account’s routing number is the institution and transit pair, and its electronic form is: A leading zero, then the institution number, then the transit number: 9 digits. It is not an ABA number, though both run to nine digits.
For US-dollar wires from the United States, some Canadian banks list a US correspondent or intermediary bank, or an ABA routing number; SWIFT codes: US-dollar and other-currency wires sums them up.