The banks with which your company (company code) maintains a bank account are referred to as house banks.

You define these banks in the system under a house bank key (bank ID). You store the accounts that you maintain at these banks under an account ID. For each bank account, you create a G/L account in the SAP system.

Bank master data is stored centrally in the SAP system. This includes address data and other control data, such as the SWIFT code. You require bank master data for your house banks and for your customer or vendor's banks. By specifying the country and a country-specific key, such as the bank number or the SWIFT code, you establish the connection between your house banks and the bank master data (see the figure below). The bank details are required for printing the payment forms.