Bank aba numbers are essential for any type of electronic money transfer, but not many people know what these numbers are when they are asked to provide one. If you have recently been asked by a business or an employer for your bank's aba number, it is very important that you understand what type of information you're giving away, and what the group you're giving it to can do with it. In order for any check to get processed electronically, the computer system it goes through has to be identify it as a unique piece of financial data. In order to do this, every single check has its own unique number. These numbers consist of a nine digit number, followed by a second number of varying length, and a third number. In this system, the first string of nine digits is the bank's aba number, the second string of a varying number of digits is the check writer's account number, and the third number is the number of the check itself. In order to get a check to where it needs to go, every bank that does business in the United States has been assigned an aba number that is unique to that institution. Think of it as an ID number for the bank. Since this number is the only way to identify a bank electronically, it is critical that anyone who is entering this information in order to set up a funds transfer copy it correctly. Mistakes could lead to the money being misrouted, and deposited into another person bank account. Finding your bank's aba number isn't too difficult. The most common way to find it is by looking at the string of numbers printed at the bottom of each of your checks. Nearly all checks in the United States are processed electronically, so nearly all professionally printed checks have their bank's aba number and its account number printed along the bottom.