Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson wrote:

>I pointed out to him on a
> statement I'd brought in with the International Bank Reference Code

Was this "International Bank Reference Code" anything like a
SWIFT BIC?


> and International Bank Account Number printed on it, but for some

Um, IBANs are an *European* standard -- US and Japanese banks,
for example, don't use them.  The de facto common protocol for
cross-border payments is still SWIFT.


> SMBC they were the most useless Japanese bank I'd ever dealt with

Yet that useless bank succeeded in making the transfer, it seems...