Routing Number Lookup

Overview

A routing number validation API for ACH payment forms, payroll and payout onboarding. Send a nine-digit US routing number: input that fails the ABA mod-10 check digit is rejected with a 400 before any lookup, and a valid number returns the bank name from a routing number database that is refreshed on a weekly cycle. Each match includes the routing type (primary, thrift, electronic or government), the Federal Reserve district by name and number, and, for banks that publish a routing number list by state, the states the bank assigns the number to. Paid plans add the registered street address, city and ZIP code, office and record-type codes, and the successor routing number when a bank has retired one.

Live Test Routing Number Lookup Source →

Formula

One function covers the whole catalog: the first argument names the source, the rest are its inputs, and the "field" pair says which single value lands in the cell. Formulas covers the grammar that applies to all of them.

=VERVE("routinglookup", A2, "field", "routing_number")

A2 holds the routing you are looking up. Drag the formula down and each row resolves on its own.

With literal values

Nothing has to come from a cell — typed values work the same way.

=VERVE("routinglookup", 121000358, "field", "routing_number")

Inputs

Required inputs are positional, in the order below. Everything else is passed as a "name", value pair after them — the same shape as SUMIFS. Premium inputs are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them.

Input	Type	Where it goes	Description
`routing`Required	string	argument 2 (A2)	The routing number to lookup information about length 9–9

What lands in your sheet

The "field" pair is what makes the formula resolve to one cell. Its value is a dot-path from the table below, so swapping it is how you pull a different value — one formula per column.

Seeing everything at once

Drop the "field" pair and the formula returns the whole response instead: two columns, field name on the left and value on the right, spilling from the cell you typed in.

=VERVE("routinglookup", A2)

Good for exploring, not for filling down

The second row's table would land on top of the first's, and every cell after the first reads #REF! (#SPILL! in Excel). Keep one per sheet, or name a field, and leave the cells below and to the right empty.

Response fields

Paths are relative to data. Each one is exactly what the "field" pair accepts, so swapping it is how you pull a different value into a cell. On a plan without a Premium field the cell reads #PREMIUM(field) rather than a value, so a locked field never looks like a real answer.

Use as "field"	Type	Example cell value	Description
`routing_number`	string	`121000358`	The ABA routing number for the bank
`office_code`Premium	string	`O`	Office code designating the main office or branch location
`record_type_code`Premium	string	`1`	Record type code indicating transaction type classification
`new_routing_number`Premium	string	`000000000`	New routing number if the bank has been updated
`bank`	string	`BANK OF AMERICA, N.A.`	Name of the financial institution or bank
`address`Premium	string	`8001 VILLA PARK DRIVE`	Street address the bank registered with the Federal Reserve for this routing number; national banks often use one central office for numbers in many states
`city`Premium	string	`HENRICO`	City of the bank's registered address for this routing number
`state`	string	`VA`	Two-letter state of the bank's registered address; can differ from where the routing number is used (see address_in_district)
`zip`Premium	string	`23228`	Five-digit postal code of the bank's registered address
`zip_extension`Premium	string	`0000`	Four-digit ZIP code extension for more precise location
`country`	string	`US`	Country code (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 format)
`federal_reserve_district`	string	`San Francisco`	Federal Reserve district (e.g. San Francisco) derived from the routing number's first two digits; null for government or traveler's-cheque prefixes
`federal_reserve_district_number`	number	`12`	Federal Reserve district number (1 Boston to 12 San Francisco) from the routing number's first two digits, with thrift and electronic prefixes folded back to their district; null for government or traveler's-cheque prefixes
`federal_reserve_states`	array	`["AK","AS","AZ"]`	Two-letter codes of the states and territories in the routing number's Federal Reserve district, i.e. where the number is issued; null for government or traveler's-cheque prefixes
`address_in_district`	boolean	`false`	False when the registered address is outside the routing number's Federal Reserve district, typically a national bank's central office; null when there is no district or state
`states_served`	array	`["CA"]`	States where the bank itself tells customers to use this number for checking, ACH and direct deposit, from the bank's published routing-number list; null when the bank publishes no by-state list or the number is not on it (e.g. a wire-only number)
`routing_type`	string	`primary`	Routing category derived from the routing number prefix: primary, thrift, electronic, government, or travelers_cheque
`is_valid_checksum`	boolean	`true`	Whether the routing number passes the ABA mod-10 checksum
`routing_analysis`Premium	object	`{…}`	Plain-language interpretation of the FRB office and record-type codes: head office vs branch, whether it is a Federal Reserve Bank, active vs superseded, and the replacement routing number if the institution was reassigned
`routing_analysis.is_head_office`Premium	boolean	`true`
`routing_analysis.is_branch`Premium	boolean	`false`
`routing_analysis.is_federal_reserve_bank`Premium	boolean	`false`
`routing_analysis.is_active`Premium	boolean	`true`
`routing_analysis.replaced_by`Premium	object	`null`

Filling a whole column

Both platforms make one batched call for a column rather than one request per cell, and both cost the same — 10 credits per row looked up. How you write it differs, because the two runtimes batch at different points.

Rows 2–100 in one call

=VERVE("routinglookup", A2:A100, "field", "routing_number")

In Google Sheets, give the arguments ranges and the answers spill down from the cell you typed in. Custom functions there run synchronously and in isolation, so dragged cells cannot be coalesced — the range form is how a column becomes one call. The "field" pair is required here: a per-row two-column table has nowhere to spill. Use a full column per input (A2:A100, not A2) — a single-cell reference is read as row 1 only and the rest of the column comes back blank.

In Excel, type the formula once and fill down — no range form and none needed, because its runtime is asynchronous and the add-in coalesces the calls a fill produces into a single batched request. Do not hand VERVE.CALL a range: Excel flattens it into positional arguments, so A2:A100 arrives as a hundred separate arguments and the cell reads #ERR rather than filling.

Either way, column A holds your routing values and the answers land beside them, one row each, blank rows skipped.

When a cell doesn't fill

A failed lookup returns readable text starting with #ERR rather than a spreadsheet error, because Excel cannot show a custom message on a real error — you would get a bare #VALUE! with no reason. The trade-off is that IFERROR() will not catch it; test with LEFT(cell, 4) = "#ERR" instead. Error handling covers the rest.

Cell reads	What happened
`#ERR Not connected`	No API key saved. Open the side panel and connect your account.
`#ERR Replace <name> with a cell or value`	A preview formula was copied as-is. Swap the placeholder for a cell reference.
`#ERR No "x" in routinglookup`	An option name this source does not take. The message lists the ones it does.
`#ERR No data point "…"`	The `"field"` path is not in the response. Check it against the table above.
`#PREMIUM(field)`	The field exists but your plan does not include it.
`#ERR Out of credits`	The cycle's credits are spent. Usage resets on your billing date.

Before the formula works

The add-in reads the API key you saved once in the side panel — the key never goes in the formula, so a shared sheet does not leak it and a collaborator without access simply sees the last calculated values.

Install the add-in for Google Sheets or Excel.
Open the side panel and sign in, or paste a key from your dashboard.
Type the formula above into any cell.

Use cases

Direct Deposit Setup: When onboarding new hires, payroll systems validate the entered routing number and auto-fill the financial institution name before issuing paychecks.
ACH Transfer Verification: To prevent transfer rejections, payment processors test mod-10 checksums and confirm the receiving bank matches customer paperwork before scheduling debits.
Accounting Vendor Onboarding: Procurement teams verify supplier banking details during vendor registration to catch typos and detect obsolete routing numbers before sending disbursements.
Merchant Account Enrollment: Reject mistyped routing numbers during merchant signup and show the bank name back to the applicant, so a wrong digit is caught before the first settlement instead of after a returned payment.

Other ways to use Routing Number Lookup

Set up Routing Number Lookup on VerveSheets, or reach the same source a different way. Your VerveSheets account and credits work on all of them — one key, one balance.

Call it as a REST APIOne HTTPS endpoint and an x-api-key header, with SDKs for Node, Python and .NET.APIVerve →Reference →

Give it to an AI agentConnect over MCP and your agent calls it as a native tool — Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT.VerveKit →Reference →

Ground an agent on itA cited, machine-checkable fact your model can't produce on its own.VerveContext →Reference →