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How To Find Your Bank

Routing Number: A
Guide To The ABA RTN
By Peter Anderson — Leave a Comment - The content of this website
often contains affiliate links and I may be compensated if you buy through those
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14, 2020.

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F
inding your bank’s routing number should
be easy.

That isn’t always the case.

I was attempting to make an estimated tax

payment the other day, and as part of the
process I had to enter the routing number and
bank account number for my bank.

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I’ve done this in the past, and usually I just

search my bank’s website for the information.

This time, however, they had removed that

FAQ page, or were in the process of updating
their site – so the routing number was
nowhere to be found.

I was able to find what I thought were routing

numbers elsewhere, but after double-checking
them they weren’t matching up with other
sites.

In the end I found the correct routing number

elsewhere on my bank’s site, but it really
shouldn’t be that hard.

So today I decided to take a deeper look at the

ABA bank routing transit number. What are
they, why are they important, and where can I
find them when I need them?

Quick Navigation

What Is A Bank Routing Transit Number

(RTN Number)?
What Do The Numbers In The Bank Routing
Number Mean?
An Example ABA Routing Transit Number
How To Find Your Bank’s Routing Number
Find Routing Number On Check
Find Routing Number On Bank’s Website
Find Routing Number By Calling Your
Bank
Routing Numbers For Top 10 United States
Banks
Wells Fargo Routing Numbers
U.S. Bank Routing Numbers
Chase Bank Routing Numbers
Bank of America Routing Numbers
Citibank Routing Numbers
PNC Bank Routing Numbers
Bank of New York Mellon Routing Numbers
Morgan Stanley Routing Numbers
Capital One Routing Numbers
TD Bank Routing Numbers
TCF Bank Routing Numbers
Finding Your Bank Routing Transit Numbers
Shouldn’t Be Hard

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What Is A Bank Routing Transit

Number (RTN Number)?
The American Banking Association routing
transit number or ABA RTN, the nine-digit
code found on your checks, was first
developed over 100 years ago. From
Wikipedia:

An ABA routing transit number

(ABA RTN) is a nine-digit code,
used in the United States, which
appears on the bottom of
negotiable instruments such as
checks to identify the financial
institution on which it was drawn.
The ABA RTN was originally
designed to facilitate the sorting,
bundling, and shipment of paper
checks back to the drawer’s
(check writer’s) account. As new
payment methods were developed
(ACH and Wire), the system was
expanded to accommodate these
payment methods.

The ABA RTN is necessary for the

Federal Reserve Banks to process
Fedwire funds transfers, and by
the ACH Network to process direct
deposits, bill payments, and other
such automated transfers. The
ABA RTN system was developed
in 1910 by the American Bankers
Association.

The RTN number was developed in 1910 and

has been in use ever since.

So who is eligible to get an ABA Routing

Number?

An ABA Routing Number will only

be issued to a Federal or State
chartered financial institution
which is eligible to maintain an
account at a Federal Reserve
Bank.

The Official ABA Registrar of

Routing Numbers, Accuity, is
responsible for the assignment of
routing numbers in accordance
with the Routing Number
Administrative Board Routing
Number Policy. Accuity has served
as the ABA’s Official Registrar
since 1911. A newly organized
financial institution must complete
and submit an application to
Accuity to be assigned its ABA
Routing Number.

So RTN numbers are assigned to member

banking institutions by Accuity, the official
registrar of the ABA after they submit an
application. That number helps facilitate any
number of financial transactions from writing
a check, wire transfers, and ACH
transactions.

According to the ABA there are currently about

28,000 active RTN numbers.

What Do The Numbers In The

Bank Routing Number Mean?
So
what
do the
digits
of the
routing

number mean? The numbers reflect a bank’s

geographic location and internal handling
information used by the Federal Reserve.

The first two digits of the routing number

correspond to the 12 Federal Reserve Banks,
so whatever region your particular bank is in
will be represented by these two digits.

The third digit corresponds to the Federal

Reserve check processing center that was
originally assigned to the bank, although these
days processing is now centralized at the
Atlanta Fed.

The fourth digit tells you if the bank is located

in the Federal Reserve city proper with a 0, or
1-9 according to which state in the Federal
Reserve district it’s in.

The fifth through eighth digits correspond to

the bank’s unique ABA identity within it’s Fed
district.

The ninth digit provides a check digit for a

checksum test to verify the number is a valid
one.

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An Example ABA Routing Transit

Number
By way of example, here’s how one of my
bank’s 9 digit routing numbers would break
down:

TCF Bank Routing Number – 291070001

29 (Minneapolis Federal Reserve District,

Credit Union or Savings Bank)
1 (Bank check processing center #1)
0 (In Federal Reserve city of Minneapolis
proper)
7000 (Bank ID number)
1 (Check digit)

How does the check digit work? You take the 9

digit routing number and apply a checksum
algorithm called “modules 10” against it, which
requires you to perform a calculation on the
routing number.

You take the 1st, 4th, and 7th digit and multiply
them by 3. You take the 2nd, 5th, and 8th digit
and multiply them by 7. Then you take the 3rd,
6th, and 9th digits and multiply them by 1.
Then you add all the resulting numbers. The
total should be easily divisible by 10 with no
remainder. If it is, it is a valid routing number.

So for our number 291070001, here is what

the calculation looks like:

(2x3)+(9x7)+(1x1)+(0x3)+(7x7)+(0x1)+(0x3)+
(0x7)+(1x1) = 120

120 is easily divisible by 10 and has no

remainder, so it is a valid routing transit
number.

So there is some reasoning behind these

routing numbers, it makes some sense when
you dig into it.

How To Find Your Bank’s

Routing Number
So now that we knew the reasoning behind the
bank routing number, and what the number
means, how do you find your bank’s routing
number?

There are several places you can go to find

your RTN.

Find Routing Number On Check

Probably the easiest place to find your bank’s
routing number is to look at your paper
checks.

The check will typically have the 9 digit routing

number down on the bottom left of the check.
It will be in a sequence of three numbers
printed in MICR (magnetic ink character
recognition) form.

The first number in the MICR sequence below

is the routing number. The second is the
account number. The third is the check
number.

The account number isn’t always listed first,

but you always know that it’s going to be 9
digits, and that it shows at the bottom between
two symbols that look like this:

Find that symbol, and you’ll see the routing

number in-between.

Find Routing Number On Bank’s

Website
The next best place to find your routing
number is on the website for your bank. The
routing number isn’t secret information, it’s
public information that the bank will put on
their website.

The problem is that it isn’t always placed out

front where it’s easy to find.

Your best bet is to go to your bank’s FAQ page

or to just do a search for “Bank Name +
routing number” on Google, and you should be
able to find the correct RTN to use.

Find Routing Number By Calling Your

Bank
You can also find your bank’s routing number
just by calling your bank’s customer service
line.

If you’re not able to find the routing number on

your bank’s site, the customer service reps
should have that information handy as I’m sure
it’s something that customers ask for quite
often. We have the customer service numbers
for the top 10 US Banks down below for your
reference.

Routing Numbers For Top 10

United States Banks
The routing numbers for all of the top banks
are out there on the web, but if you’ve ever
done a search you know that sometimes the
information can be scattered around, and not
always consistent. So in this article I just want
to bring together some of the routing numbers
for the top 10 or so banks in the United States.

The numbers below are organized by region or

state. Where applicable we’ll also try to give
you a customer service number for each bank
in case you want to call and verify the routing
number.

Wells Fargo Routing Numbers

Wells Fargo is headquartered in San
Francisco where it was formed back in the
Gold Rush days. In terms of market
capitalization Wells Fargo is the biggest bank
in the world and has the oldest continuously
operating bank charter in the U.S.

They also pay the largest sum of corporate

taxes of any US company each year.

Wells Fargo Routing Number Help

Customer service phone number: 1-800-
869-3557

Here is a listing of bank routing numbers for

Wells Fargo:

Bank Routing Numbers For Top 10 Banks : Wells

Fargo
Virginia 51400549
Washington 125008547
West Virginia 121042882
Wisconsin 75911988
Wyoming 102301092
American Samoa 121042882
North Mariana Islands 121042882
Puerto Rico 121042882
Virgin Islands 121042882
American Forces Abroad 121042882
EasyPaySM Cards 31302777
>
Wells Fargo
<

U.S. Bank Routing Numbers

U.S. Bancorp is based in Minneapolis,
Minnesota, and is among the largest banks in
the United States. The company has 3,106
branches and 4,842 ATMs, primarily in the
Midwestern United States, and has
approximately 72,400 employees.

U.S. Bancorp operates under the second-

oldest continuous national charter after Wells
Fargo.

US Bank Routing Number Help

Customer service phone number: 1-800-
872-2657

Here is a listing of bank routing numbers for

US Bank:

Bank Routing Numbers For Top 10 Banks : US Bank

New Mexico 107002312
North Dakota (+ Moorhead, MN) 91300023
Ohio - Cleveland 41202582
Ohio - all other areas 42000013
Oregon 123000220
South Dakota 91408501
Tennessee 64000059
Utah 124302150
Washington 125000105
Wisconsin 75000022
Wyoming 307070115
All other states 91000022
>
US Bank
<

Chase Bank Routing Numbers

JP Morgan Chase Bank is the largest bank in
the United States, and the 6th largest in the
world, according to the Federal Reserve. They
hold close to $2 trillion in worldwide assets
and are the result of the 2000 merger of two
much older banks, JP Morgan and Company,
and Chase Manhattan Corporation. Retail and
commercial banking services are provided
under the Chase name.

Chase Bank Routing Number Help

Customer service phone number: 1-800-
935-9935

Here is a listing of bank routing numbers for JP

Morgan Chase Bank:

Bank Routing Numbers For Top 10 Banks : JP ×

Morgan Chase
Region Routing Number Privacy - Terms