From apple.stackexchange.com/questions/466770:
It's not unusual for a legal entity to have an IBAN, but why does a company that isn't a bank have an entire SWIFT BIC (
APLEUS66XXX) registered for them?Comparison
The sole other company which appears to have done the same is Google (GOOGUS66XXX) which leads me to believe that it must relate to the Apple and Google Pay services, respectively.Scratch that - Microsoft is registered as
MSFTUS66XXX.
These companies (and some others) have tens/hundreds of billions of dollars in their treasuries and operate inhouse investment banks to manage that.
They also have vast international presence through branches, subsidiaries, and investments.
As such they're directly connected to swift to facilitate their money management.
Having a BIC doesn't necessarily make it a bank/financial institution:
What is a BIC code?
BIC is the International ISO standard ISO 9362. This standard specifies the elements and structure of a universal identifier code, the business identifier code (BIC), for financial and non-financial institutions, for which such an international identifier is required to facilitate automated processing of information.
There are two types: Connected BICs with access to the Swift network and non-connected BICs with no access and used for reference purposes only.
Overview and structure
The BIC is used for addressing messages, routing business transactions and identifying business parties.
Swift in its role of ISO registration authority issues BICs. The BIC is used in financial transactions, client and counterparty databases, compliance documents and many others, but not all BICs are connected to the Swift network used by banks and other institutions for financial messaging. Non-connected BICs, by definition, have no rights or authorisation to connect and exchange messages over the Swift network.
https://www.swift.com/standards/data-standards/bic-business-identifier-code
