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Glossary

BEAN

BEAN is the Basic Euro Account Number — positions 5 to 18 of a DEAN, the indicator digit plus the 13-digit serial.

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Definition

BEAN

The portion of a DEAN occupying positions 5 to 18 — the indicator digit plus the 13-digit serial number. It is the DEAN with the EU prefix and the two check digits stripped off.

Also written as: Basic Euro Account Number

The BEAN is the inner core of a DEAN. If a DEAN is the full 18-character account number, the BEAN is what remains once you remove the two things that exist purely for transport safety: the EU prefix and the two check digits.

Where it sits

A DEAN breaks down like this:

PositionsLengthPartIn the BEAN?
1–22EU prefixNo
3–42Check digitsNo
51Indicator digitYes
6–1813Serial numberYes

So the BEAN is 14 characters: one indicator digit followed by a 13-digit serial.

Why the distinction exists

The split mirrors the relationship between an IBAN and its underlying account number. The prefix and check digits are a wrapper that lets any system validate the identifier before using it — they carry no account meaning of their own. Strip them and you are left with the part that actually identifies the account: the BEAN.

The check digits are calculated over the rest of the identifier using ISO/IEC 7064 MOD 97-10, so the BEAN is an input to the checksum rather than something the checksum protects independently. You cannot validate a BEAN on its own — validation is a property of the whole DEAN.

Practical note

In day-to-day integration work you will handle DEANs, not BEANs. The BEAN matters when you are reading the specification and need to know precisely which slice of the identifier a field refers to, or when you are implementing check digit computation and need to know exactly which characters feed the algorithm.

Like the DEAN it belongs to, a BEAN is never minted by a PSP. The Eurosystem generates the identifier through the DESP.

Sources

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