El Salvador IBAN
A El Salvador IBAN is 28 characters long.
SV and two check digits open every El Salvador IBAN; its remaining 24 form the BBAN (Basic Bank Account Number). Transfers into El Salvador arrive in USD over SWIFT.
Example El Salvador IBAN
Electronic format
SV62CENR00000000000000700025
Print format
SV62 CENR 0000 0000 0000 0070 0025
IBAN structure for El Salvador
Major banks in El Salvador
2 banks in El Salvador that support IBAN-based international transfers:
Format reference: SWIFT IBAN Registry.
El Salvador IBAN questions
Is money sent to El Salvador converted into colones?
No. The Monetary Integration Law expresses every operation of the financial system, bank deposits included, in dollars, so a Salvadoran account is credited in dollars. The colón, which some currency lists still show as SVC, kept its legal tender status on paper, but banks must swap colón notes and coins for dollars when presented.
Does a shop in El Salvador have to accept bitcoin?
Not since the 2025 reform. The IMF says the amendments repealed the duty of both the public and private sectors to accept bitcoin, made private acceptance voluntary, ended the state's obligation to provide automatic bitcoin-to-dollar convertibility, and left the BCR and the Superintendencia del Sistema Financiero to issue regulations under the law.
What happened to Chivo, the government's bitcoin wallet?
Its majority owner is now private. In a press release of 1 October 2026 on the second and third reviews of El Salvador's Extended Fund Facility, the IMF said the transfer of majority ownership and control of Chivo to a private operator had been completed and that remaining public-sector exposure should be fully unwound.
El Salvador: dollar accounts, Transfer365 and bitcoin's new status
El Salvador's bank accounts are kept in US dollars. The Monetary Integration Law, Legislative Decree 201 of 30 November 2000, gave the dollar unrestricted legal tender status and requires bank deposits, loans and the financial system's records to be expressed in dollars, as the Supreme Court's 2001 ruling on the law quotes it. The IMF dates the dollar's official status to 1 January 2001. Colón notes remain legal tender, but banks must exchange them for dollars.
- Banco Central de Reserva (BCR) developed Transfer365, an interbank payment system it says is available at 28 Salvadoran institutions, among them banks, cooperative banks and savings and credit societies, around the clock all year. One of its modes needs only the mobile number linked to the recipient's account, and Transfer365 Business handles companies' high-value payments.
- The Bitcoin Law made bitcoin legal tender alongside the dollar from September 2021. According to the IMF, amendments published in the Official Gazette on 30 January 2025 removed the concept of currency and the essential features of legal tender, made private acceptance voluntary and repealed paying taxes in bitcoin; a regulation published on 24 February 2025 says taxes are paid in dollars only.
- Remittances were worth about 23 percent of GDP, the IMF noted in its February 2025 staff report. Within the region, Transfer365 CA-RD lets customers send and receive money between El Salvador, the rest of Central America and the Dominican Republic through 71 financial institutions in the participating countries, the BCR says.
Sources: Supreme Court ruling quoting the Monetary Integration Law (2001); BCR: Transfer365 (Spanish); IMF Country Report No. 25/58: El Salvador (February 2025); IMF: second and third EFF reviews for El Salvador (1 Oct 2026).
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