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.

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.