Azerbaijan IBAN Format (AZ) — Structure, Length & Example

The Azerbaijani IBAN is a 28-character code that uniquely identifies bank accounts in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan adopted the IBAN standard to simplify cross-border payments with European banking partners. The AZ format is notable for its 4-character alphabetic bank code (like the UK's sort-code-less format) followed by a 20-character alphanumeric account number — giving it one of the more distinctive BBAN structures in the post-Soviet region.

Azerbaijani IBAN at a Glance

• Country code: AZ
• Total length: 28 characters (always)
• Format: AZkk bbbb cccccccccccccccccccc
• BBAN length: 24 characters
• Currency: Azerbaijani Manat (AZN)
• SEPA member: No

Azerbaijani IBAN Structure Explained

An Azerbaijani IBAN encodes four components within its 28-character body:

1. Country Code — AZ (2 characters)

The ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code for Azerbaijan. Every Azerbaijani IBAN begins with AZ.

2. Check Digits — kk (2 digits)

Two decimal digits calculated via the MOD-97 algorithm over the full BBAN. These protect against single-character transcription errors and transposed digits.

3. Bank Code — bbbb (4 uppercase letters)

A 4-character alphabetic bank code derived from the institution's name or abbreviation. Unlike most European countries where the bank code is purely numeric, Azerbaijan uses letters — similar to the UK. Common Azerbaijani bank codes:

• NABZ — Central Bank of Azerbaijan (Azərbaycan Mərkəzi Bankı)
• AIIB — ABB (International Bank of Azerbaijan predecessor code)
• ATIB — AtaBank
• BRES — PASHA Bank
• KAPB — Kapital Bank

4. Account Number — cccccccccccccccccccc (20 characters)

A 20-character alphanumeric account number. The account number may contain both uppercase letters and digits. The length and composition vary by bank. The combination of a 4-character bank code and a 20-character account number yields the 24-character BBAN.

Real Azerbaijani IBAN Example

AZ21 NABZ 0000 0000 1370 1000 1944

• Country: AZ
• Check digits: 21
• Bank code: NABZ (Central Bank of Azerbaijan)
• Account number: 00000000137010001944

Electronic format (no spaces): AZ21NABZ00000000137010001944

This is a specimen IBAN for illustrative purposes only. Validate any real Azerbaijani IBAN with the ibanchecker.cash validator.

How Azerbaijani IBAN Validation Works

1. Country code: First two characters must be AZ.
2. Length: Exactly 28 characters after removing spaces.
3. Bank code format: Characters 5–8 must be uppercase letters (A–Z), not digits.
4. Account characters: Positions 9–28 are alphanumeric (digits and uppercase letters).
5. MOD-97: Rearrange the first four characters to the end, convert letters to numbers (A=10…Z=35), compute modulo 97. Result must equal 1.

The ibanchecker.cash validator runs all five checks and decodes the bank code and account number for any Azerbaijani IBAN.

Azerbaijan's Banking System

The Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan (CBAR) — known in Azerbaijani as Azərbaycan Respublikasının Mərkəzi Bankı — is headquartered in Baku and is the sole monetary authority and bank regulator. It oversees approximately 25 licensed commercial banks.

Key commercial banks include:

• ABB (International Bank of Azerbaijan) — the largest state-owned commercial bank, founded in 1992
• Kapital Bank — the largest bank by branch network, state-controlled
• PASHA Bank — leading private corporate bank, part of the PASHA Holding group
• AtaBank — mid-sized private bank with retail focus
• Bank Respublika — private bank with strong SME presence

Look up Azerbaijani bank BIC/SWIFT codes using the ibanchecker.cash SWIFT directory.

SEPA Status and International Transfers

Azerbaijan is not a SEPA member. All cross-border payments to Azerbaijan require an international SWIFT wire transfer. Both the IBAN and the BIC/SWIFT code are mandatory for routing. Azerbaijan is not an EU candidate country, so SEPA accession is not on the near-term horizon.

The Azerbaijani Manat (AZN) is pegged to the US Dollar at a fixed rate of approximately 1.70 AZN per USD. Currency conversion fees apply to all EUR or GBP payments to Azerbaijan.

Common Azerbaijani IBAN Mistakes

Treating the Bank Code as Numeric

Unlike most European country IBANs, the Azerbaijani bank code is alphabetic (e.g., NABZ, KAPB). Systems that expect a purely numeric BBAN will reject valid AZ IBANs. The BBAN contains uppercase letters in both the bank code and potentially the account number.

Confusing AZ with AT (Austria) or AE (UAE)

AZ, AT, and AE look similar. Austrian IBANs are 20 characters; UAE IBANs are 23 characters; Azerbaijani IBANs are 28 characters. Length alone disambiguates them.

Short-Padding the Account Number

The account number field is exactly 20 characters. Accounts with fewer significant digits are left-padded with zeros to reach the full 20-character width. Omitting leading zeros invalidates the IBAN's MOD-97 check.

Extracting IBANs from Azerbaijani Bank Documents

Azerbaijani bank statements often present the IBAN in groups of four characters separated by spaces. Use the ibanchecker.cash Smart IBAN Extractor to pull all IBANs from invoices, PDFs, or email text automatically, regardless of formatting.

Last updated: June 2026