New Zealand NCC Code Validation

An NCC (National Clearing Code) is the six-digit bank and branch prefix of a New Zealand bank account number. It tells the clearing system which bank and which branch hold the account, in the same way a sort code does in the UK.

A full New Zealand account number is written as BB-bbbb-AAAAAAA-SSS: a two-digit bank number, a four-digit branch number, a seven-digit account base and a two or three-digit suffix. The NCC is the first six digits of that number.

For example, NCC code 010205:

01 - bank number (01 is ANZ Bank New Zealand)
0205 - branch number

Because the NCC is embedded in every account number, you can extract it from an account a customer gives you (e.g. 01-0205-0123456-00) and look it up to confirm which bank and branch the money will go to before you pay.

What the API checks

Format - the code must be exactly six digits, without dashes or spaces. Anything else returns 400 Invalid NCC.
Existence - the bank and branch combination must appear in the Bank Branch Register. A well-formed code for a branch that doesn't exist returns 404.

The API validates the bank and branch part only. The account base and suffix aren't checked, so pair the NCC lookup with your own account-number checks or a payee verification step for high-value payments.

How to validate an NCC code

To start using our Fin Codes API sign up here and create your API key. Pass this key as a bearer token in the Authorization HTTP header, e.g. Authorization: Bearer your-api-key-here.

To validate an NCC code call /v2/ncc/{ncc_code} endpoint using HTTP client of your preference, i.e.:

curl 'https://api.fincodesapi.com/v2/ncc/010205' \
    --header 'Authorization: Bearer your-api-key-here' \
    --header 'Accept: application/json'

# INSTALLATION
$ composer require guzzlehttp/guzzle

# REQUEST
<?php
require_once('vendor/autoload.php');

$client = new \GuzzleHttp\Client();

$response = $client->request('GET', 'https://api.fincodesapi.com/v2/ncc/010205', [
    'headers' => [
        'Accept' => 'application/json',
        'Authorization' => 'Bearer your-api-key-here',
    ],
]);

echo $response->getBody();

# INSTALLATION
$ python -m pip install requests

# REQUEST
import requests

url = "https://api.fincodesapi.com/v2/ncc/010205"

headers = {
    "Accept": "application/json",
    "Authorization": "Bearer your-api-key-here"
}

response = requests.request("GET", url, headers=headers)

print(response.text)

# INSTALLATION
$ npm install node-fetch --save

// REQUEST
import fetch from 'node-fetch';

const url = 'https://api.fincodesapi.com/v2/ncc/010205';
const options = {
  method: 'GET',
  headers: {
    'Accept': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': 'Bearer your-api-key-here'
  }
};

fetch(url, options)
  .then(res => res.json())
  .then(json => console.log(json))
  .catch(err => console.error('error:' + err));

const options = {
  method: 'GET',
  headers: {
    'Accept': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': 'Bearer your-api-key-here'
  }
};

fetch('https://api.fincodesapi.com/v2/ncc/010205', options)
  .then(response => response.json())
  .then(response => console.log(response))
  .catch(err => console.error(err));

The response should be:

{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "id": "010205",
        "branch_name": "ANZ Retail",
        "address": "170 Featherston street",
        "city": "Wellington",
        "postcode": "6011",
        "phone": "0800 269 296",
        "fax": "",
        "pob_number": "PO Box 18",
        "pob_location": "Shortland Street, Auckland",
        "pob_postcode": "1140",
        "bank": {
            "id": "dae732d9-535d-4dcd-9719-a0957a4afedd",
            "country_id": "NZ",
            "code": "01",
            "name": "ANZ Bank New Zealand"
        }
    }
}

Response fields

id - the six-digit NCC
branch_name and branch_code - the branch and its four-digit number
address, city, postcode - the branch's street address
std, phone, fax - the branch's contact numbers as listed in the register
pob_number, pob_location, pob_postcode - the branch's PO Box, where one is registered
bank - the bank the two-digit bank number belongs to

Common mistakes

Sending the whole account number - only the first six digits are the NCC. Strip the dashes and send the bank and branch digits.
Dropping the leading zero - most major banks have bank numbers that start with 0 (01, 02, 03, 06), and spreadsheets turn 010205 into 10205.
Treating a branch as a separate bank - one bank number can cover hundreds of branches. Group payees by the bank object, not by the full NCC.

Where the data comes from

NCC data is imported from the Bank Branch Register maintained by Payments NZ and is refreshed weekly.

You can find full documentation here.