Swift Bic

Detects Swift Bic patterns. This pattern is based on a Microsoft Purview built-in sensitive information type. Users already running Purview may prefer to enable the built-in SIT directly, or use this version as a starting point for customisation.

Type

regex

Engine

universal

Confidence

high

Confidence justification

High confidence: structurally constrained pattern with corroborative keyword support reduces false positive rates significantly. Added context gating and exclusion rules improve precision and reduce incidental matches.

Detection quality

Verified

Jurisdictions

global

Frameworks

ISO 27001, ISO 27701, PCI-DSS, SOC 2

Data categories

financial

Scope

narrow

Risk rating

9

Platform compatibility

Purview: Compatible, GCP DLP: Compatible, Macie: Compatible, Zscaler: Compatible, Palo Alto: Compatible, Netskope: Compatible

Pattern

\b[A-Z]{6}[A-Z0-9]{2}([A-Z0-9]{3})?\b

Corroborative evidence keywords

bank account, account number, account no, BSB, routing number, sort code, IBAN, SWIFT, BIC, field, column, row, entry, record, value, form, register, database, extract, export (+18 more)

Proximity: 300 characters

Should match

• DEUTDEFF — Deutsche Bank 8-character SWIFT/BIC
• BNPAFRPP — BNP Paribas 8-character SWIFT/BIC
• CHASUS33XXX — JPMorgan Chase 11-character SWIFT/BIC

Should not match

• DEUT1EFF — Contains a digit in the first 6 characters (must be all letters)
• DEUTDE — Only 6 characters instead of minimum 8
• DEUTDEFFXXXX — 12 characters instead of maximum 11
• template example placeholder record identifier — Template/sample context should be excluded even when anchor words are present

Known false positives

• Financial terminology appearing in published reports, accounting textbooks, regulatory guidance, or template documents without actual transaction data. Mitigation: Require corroborative evidence keywords within the proximity window. Cross-reference with structured financial identifiers to confirm actual sensitive data.
• In English (as the primary international business language), standard business terminology overlapping with financial detection keywords in routine correspondence and documentation. Mitigation: Increase confidence threshold when scanning business correspondence. Layer with transaction-specific patterns for higher precision.

References

• SWIFT code entity definition - Microsoft Learn

Collections

• PCI-DSS Card Data