Canada has no separate routing number to look up. A Canadian routing number is your branch's transit number and your bank's institution number put together, written one way on cheques and another way for electronic payments. If you have one, you have the other.
Two formats, same numbers
- Electronic format (nine digits): a leading
0, the three-digit institution number, then the five-digit transit number. This is the one payroll systems, payment files and many online forms want when they ask for a "routing number". - Paper format (MICR): the transit number, a dash, then the institution number, as printed on cheques.
Payments Canada's branch directory lists each bank branch both ways. Royal Bank of Canada's branch in 100 Mile House, B.C., for example, appears as 000304120 (electronic) and 04120-003 (paper). The transit number is 04120 and the institution number is 003 in both.
Routing number vs transit number
The transit number (also called the branch number) is the five digits that identify one branch. The routing number contains it: add a 0 and the institution number in front and you have the electronic routing number. When a form has separate boxes for transit and institution numbers, enter them separately and leave out the leading 0. When it has one nine-digit box, use the electronic format.
Institution numbers of the main banks
From Payments Canada's list of members:
- 001: Bank of Montreal (BMO)
- 002: The Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank)
- 003: Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)
- 004: The Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD)
- 006: National Bank of Canada
- 010: Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC)
- 039: Laurentian Bank of Canada
- 219: ATB Financial
- 320: President's Choice Bank
- 338: Canadian Tire Bank
- 540: Manulife Bank of Canada
- 614: Tangerine Bank
- 623: Equitable Bank
- 815: Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec
- 837: Meridian Credit Union
Credit unions often appear on the list under their provincial central, for example Central 1 Credit Union (869, 809 and 828) or Atlantic Central (839 and 849). If your institution is not on the list, the number on your own cheque or direct deposit form is the one to use.
Finding your own
The quickest source is a cheque or direct deposit form from your account: how to read a void cheque walks through the line of numbers at the bottom. Online banking shows the transit number next to the account name, and statements often show both numbers.
The official lists
Payments Canada, which runs Canada's payment clearing systems, publishes the institution numbers of its members in its online directories, and a branch directory for banks (the geographic list) with both routing formats for each branch. Every branch on that list is searchable here in bank transit numbers in Canada, one page per bank. For any one payment, the details your supplier or employee gives you on a cheque or bank form are what counts, and it is worth confirming a change of banking details with the payee by phone before you use it.
Smartbills keeps those details where they belong: in vendor management, suppliers enter their own banking details on their record, and duplicate records are flagged on banking details and tax number, before accounts payable pays from it.