Bank institution & transit lookup.

Known institution numbers

A financial institution number is a 3-digit code Payments Canada assigns to every bank, trust company and credit-union clearing agent in Canada. A transit number is a 5-digit code for one specific branch (or, for online-only banks, one shared branch). Together they route a cheque or an EFT payment (pre-authorized debit, payroll direct deposit) to the right account. On a cheque the pair is printed as TTTTT-III; for EFT/direct deposit it is written as a 9-digit routing number, 0 + the 3-digit institution number + the 5-digit transit number.

Credit unions in British Columbia and several other provinces clear through a shared indirect clearer — Coast Capital Savings and Vancity, for example, both use Central 1 Credit Union’s institution number 809, and are only distinguished by their branch transit number, not by a separate institution number of their own.

Worked example

A cheque shows 12345-003: transit (branch) number 12345, institution number 003, which is Royal Bank of Canada in the table above. For direct deposit, write it as a 9-digit routing number: 0 + 003 + 12345 = 000312345. Going the other way, in 000412345 the three digits after the leading 0 are 004, so the institution is TD Canada Trust and 12345 is the branch. The institution number says which bank; only the transit number says which branch, and this tool cannot confirm that a given branch exists.

Sources and method

As of 26 October 2026, Payments Canada describes its Financial Institutions File as an electronic directory of routing numbers, updated weekly for address changes, banking arrangements and added or removed institutions and branches. Its page does not set out the number layout, which is why the layout and the institution table here come from cross-checked public directories and the table is not exhaustive.

Not every institution is listed here. Payments Canada's own Financial Institutions File is the authoritative registry, but it is a subscription service for participating institutions, not a public download (payments.ca). The numbers above were each cross-checked across multiple independent routing-number directories with no contradiction between sources; a handful of credit-union numbers that conflicted between sources (rather than being confirmed) were deliberately left out rather than guessed. If your institution isn't listed, check the number directly on a cheque or with your bank.