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Research dossier · History & Society

Routing transit number

nine digit code which appears on the bottom of negotiable instruments to identify the financial institution on which it was drawn

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ3445479 ↗
Source-derived summary

In the United States, an ABA routing transit number (ABA RTN) is a nine-digit code printed on the bottom of checks to identify the financial institution on which it was drawn. The American Bankers Association (ABA) developed the system in 1910 to facilitate the sorting, bundling, and delivering of paper checks to the drawer's (check writer's) bank for debit to the drawer's account.

Newer electronic payment methods continue to rely on ABA RTNs to identify the paying bank or other financial institution. Federal Reserve payment services use routing numbers to identify participants in Fedwire Funds Service, Fedwire Securities Service, and FedACH transactions.

Management

Since 1911, the American Bankers Association has partnered with a series of registrars, currently Accuity, to manage the ABA routing number system. Accuity is the Official Routing Number Registrar and is responsible for assigning ABA RTNs and managing the ABA RTN system. Accuity publishes the American Bankers Association Key to Routing Numbers semi-annually. The "Key Book" contains the listing of all ABA RTNs that have been assigned.

There are approximately 26,895 active ABA RTNs currently in use. Every financial institution in the United States has at least one.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Routing transit number” as nine digit code which appears on the bottom of negotiable instruments to identify the financial institution on which it was drawn. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewMost valuable as an event-and-institution map that identifies actors, dates and record creators for deeper historical inquiry. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1910, 1911—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Routing, transit and number can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as nine digit code which appears on the bottom of negotiable instruments to identify the financial institution on which it was drawn. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3445479. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1910 and 1911.

Critical limits

Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Routing transit number”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Routing transit number primary sources, Routing transit number archive and Routing research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Routing transit number”?
  2. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
  3. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Routing transit number” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.