Receiving money from overseas

What are we changing?

We’re making changes to the ways you can deposit overseas funds into your account. CommBank will no longer accept Foreign Cheques/Bills in any currency from 10 October 2022, and this applies to all CommBank accounts.

Why are we stopping foreign cheques?

International Money Transfers (sometimes called international direct deposits) are a faster and more secure way to receive funds from overseas. Find out more about receiving money from overseas.

What you need to do

To continue receiving funds from overseas, you need to contact the party who sends you the cheque payment and request that all future payments be credited to your CommBank account electronically via International Money Transfer (IMT) or international direct deposit.

Details you might need to provide to your payer

To make sure overseas payments are made to you swiftly and without any delays, it’s likely your payer will ask you to provide the following information in addition to your full name and home address (PO Boxes cannot be used):

Full bank name: Commonwealth Bank of Australia
BIC/SWIFT Code: CTBAAU2S
Your 14-digit account number: 06XXXX- XXXXXXXX
You can find your account number by simply logging into NetBank or the CommBank app.
International Bank Account Number (IBAN). IBANs aren’t used here in Australia, but payers in certain countries may require you to provide one. If they do, your BSB and account number should be combined, but don’t include any spaces or hyphens.

What happens if I receive a foreign cheque?

From 10 October 2022, we won’t be able to accept foreign cheques in any currency. We recommend you reach out immediately to the party who sends you the cheque and ask them to switch to electronic payment via International Money Transfer or international direct deposit.

Other options for receiving overseas payments

If you have a bank account in the country where the cheque is issued, you should be able to ask the sender to credit all future payments into this account electronically. You can then transfer these funds into your CommBank account.

Please check with your bank overseas about any fees and charges that may be applied to the transfer. You can view our fees and charges here.