FCMB Sort Code in Nigeria: How to Find Yours
Each FCMB branch has its own nine-digit sort code. Yours is printed on your cheque leaf, and the branch can confirm it. How to read and check it.
This page used to list a sort code for every FCMB branch. We have taken that list down. We could not check it against any official source, and parts of it were wrong. FCMB does not publish its branch sort codes anywhere we could read, and neither does the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) or the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).
The code to rely on is the one printed on your own cheque leaf, or the one the bank gives you for your branch. A wrong sort code on a form does more harm than a missing one, so here is how to get the right one.
How to find your FCMB sort code
On your cheque leaf
The CBN’s cheque rules make the sort code part of every cheque. Its guidelines describe a line of numbers printed in magnetic ink near the bottom of the leaf, which can carry the bank’s routing number, the account number and the cheque number. Look along that line for a group of nine digits beginning 214. That is your sort code.
From your branch
If you have no cheque book, ask at the branch that holds your account. A sort code belongs to a branch, so the one you need is for the branch where the account is kept. That may not be the branch nearest to you.
From the bank’s head office or customer service
FCMB Group’s contact page gives the bank’s head office as Primrose Tower, 17A Tinubu Street, Lagos, with the phone number +234 (0) 1 279 3030. FCMB also has a customer service page on its own site. Ask for the sort code of your account’s branch, and have the account number to hand.
We found no FCMB page saying that its app or its USSD menu shows the sort code, so we have left both out.
If your branch has closed or moved
Do not reuse the old branch’s code from memory or from a list. Ask the bank which branch holds your account now, and what that branch’s code is.
How a sort code is built
The CBN sets the format in its standards on bank account numbers. A bank’s sort code is nine digits long and has four parts:
- Three digits for the bank. The CBN assigns each bank its code.
- Two digits for the state the branch is in.
- Three digits for the branch.
- One check digit, worked out from the other eight by a set formula.
The first three digits are the bank. The CBN’s own paper on the account-number scheme lists each bank’s code, and FCMB’s is 214.
With that you can test any code you are given. It should have nine digits and begin with 214, and its fourth and fifth digits should be the code of the state the branch is in. An FCMB branch in Lagos should have a code that starts 214 15. One in Abuja should start 214 08.
A code that passes is not proved right. The test only catches the obvious mistakes.
CBN state codes
These are the state codes the CBN gave the banks. They are the fourth and fifth digits of a sort code.
| State | Code |
|---|---|
| Abia | 23 |
| Abuja (FCT) | 08 |
| Adamawa | 09 |
| Akwa Ibom | 01 |
| Anambra | 02 |
| Bauchi | 03 |
| Bayelsa | 32 |
| Benue | 05 |
| Borno | 06 |
| Cross River | 07 |
| Delta | 24 |
| Ebonyi | 33 |
| Edo | 04 |
| Ekiti | 34 |
| Enugu | 25 |
| Gombe | 35 |
| Imo | 10 |
| Jigawa | 26 |
| Kaduna | 11 |
| Kano | 12 |
| Katsina | 13 |
| Kebbi | 27 |
| Kogi | 28 |
| Kwara | 14 |
| Lagos | 15 |
| Nasarawa | 36 |
| Niger | 16 |
| Ogun | 17 |
| Ondo | 18 |
| Osun | 29 |
| Oyo | 19 |
| Plateau | 20 |
| Rivers | 21 |
| Sokoto | 22 |
| Taraba | 30 |
| Yobe | 31 |
| Zamfara | 37 |
Why old sort code lists cannot be trusted
On 7 November 2018 the CBN sent a circular to every bank and to NIBSS. It told them that each branch’s sort code must carry the code of the state the branch is in, set out the table above, and said that banks which kept using another state’s code would be sanctioned.
Our list was published in October 2018, four weeks earlier. It showed FCMB’s Aba and Umuahia branches with Imo’s state code and its Lokoja branch with Abuja’s. Under the circular, codes like those had to change. The list also gave one and the same code to three different branches, which cannot be right at any date.
The same list is still copied around the internet, mistakes included. A code that was right for a branch before November 2018 may have been replaced since, and nobody outside the bank can tell you which ones were. A list that is mostly right is the dangerous kind, because nothing about it looks wrong.
FCMB today
The bank is First City Monument Bank Ltd, the commercial bank in FCMB Group Plc. The group says it has more than 200 branches and cash centres. That is well over the 124 branches our old list covered, so the list was short as well as unreliable.
FCMB’s own branch network page lists its branches state by state, with their addresses. There are no sort codes on it.
We have the same guide for Union Bank, Ecobank and Sterling Bank.
Quick answers
What is the FCMB sort code for Lagos?
There is no single code for Lagos. Every branch has its own nine-digit code. A Lagos branch’s code should begin 214 and have 15 as its fourth and fifth digits.
What is the FCMB sort code for Kaduna, Katsina, Bauchi or Port Harcourt?
The same applies: one code for each branch. The state codes are 11 for Kaduna, 13 for Katsina, 03 for Bauchi and 21 for Rivers, so those are the digits to expect after 214.
Is there an FCMB sort code list in PDF?
Not from FCMB. Its branch network page gives branch names and addresses only, and we found no official list anywhere else.
Which FCMB sort code do I use for a transfer?
The one for the branch that holds the account the form is asking about. Take it from that account’s cheque leaf, or ask the branch.
Is the sort code the same as the bank code?
No. The bank code is only the first three digits. The sort code is all nine, and it differs from branch to branch.
