From July 1, 2025, Oman has implemented a new requirement for all financial transfers.
The Central Bank of Oman had earlier announced that the International Bank Account Number (IBAN) will be mandatory for all domestic financial transactions. It also added that international transactions will accepted without an IBAN now.
The IBAN was made mandatory for international transfers on March 31, 2024. According to the Central Bank of Oman, this initiative has significantly improved transaction accuracy, reduced errors, and accelerated processing times for both local and international bank transfers.
On the Emirates NBD app in the UAE, users have seen an awareness message that asks them to delete and re-add beneficiaries in Oman with their IBAN. The advisory says, “In line with new regulatory mandates, IBAN is now a mandatory requirement for all payments to Sultanate of Oman, starting from July,1 2025.”
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It added: “Please delete and re-add your beneficiaries in Oman using their IBAN to avoid payment failures. Kindly note a cooling period of 4 hours will apply for newly added beneficiaries.”
The IBAN or International Bank Account Number is a standardised way to identify any bank account anywhere in the world, designed to make sending money across borders much less of a headache.
It’s like a universal postal code for a bank account that includes the country (like “AE” for the UAE), some security digits, and regular account details all rolled into one.
Earlier, before the system was created, delays and mix-ups were common as banks couldn’t properly identify where payments should go. Now, with IBAN covering most of Europe, the Middle East, and parts of the Caribbean, money gets where it needs to go faster and with fewer costly errors.
This number doesn’t replace the regular account number – it’s just an extra layer that helps banks around the world speak the same language when handling international payments.
