The Indian Financial System Code (IFSC) is an alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies a bank-branch participating in the NEFT system. This is a 11 digit code with the first 4 alphabetic characters representing the bank, and the last 6 characters (usually numeric, but can be alphabetic) representing the branch. The 5th character is 0 (zero). IFSC is used by the NEFT system to route the messages to the destination banks / branches.[1]
Bank-wise list of IFSCs is available with all the bank-branches participating in NEFT. List of bank-branches participating in NEFT and their IFSCs is available on the website of Reserve Bank of India at http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/neft.aspx. All the banks have also been advised to print the IFSC of the branch on cheques issued by branches to their customers. For net banking customers many banks have enabled online search / pop-up of the IFSC of the destination bank branch.