Chapa Developer Documentation

This section describes how to get bank details for all supported banks we are working with. This API returns all the Banks information for all currencies.

Endpoint: https://api.chapa.co/v1/banks
Method: GET
Authorization: Pass your secret key as a bearer token in the request header to authorize this call.

cURL

JavaScript

PHP

Python

Successful Response

The API returns an array of bank objects with detailed information:

{
  "message": "Banks retrieved",
  "data": [
    {
      "id": 130,
      "slug": "abay_bank",
      "swift": "ABAYETAA",
      "name": "Abay Bank",
      "acct_length": 16,
      "country_id": 1,
      "is_mobilemoney": null,
      "is_active": 1,
      "is_rtgs": 1,
      "active": 1,
      "is_24hrs": null,
      "created_at": "2023-01-24T04:28:30.000000Z",
      "updated_at": "2024-08-03T08:10:24.000000Z",
      "currency": "ETB"
    },
    {
      "id": 128,
      "slug": "cbebirr",
      "swift": "CBETETAA",
      "name": "CBEBirr",
      "acct_length": 10,
      "country_id": 1,
      "is_mobilemoney": 1,
      "is_active": 1,
      "is_rtgs": null,
      "active": 1,
      "is_24hrs": 1,
      "created_at": "2024-01-24T14:41:12.000000Z",
      "updated_at": "2024-08-12T20:16:07.000000Z",
      "currency": "ETB"
    }
  ]
}

Response Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
`message`	string	Response message
`data`	array	Array of bank objects
`id`	number	Unique bank identifier (use this as `bank_code` in transfer requests)
`slug`	string	Bank slug identifier
`swift`	string	SWIFT code for the bank
`name`	string	Bank name
`acct_length`	number	Expected account number length for this bank
`country_id`	number	Country identifier
`is_mobilemoney`	number\|null	Whether this is a mobile money provider (1) or bank (null)
`is_active`	number	Whether the bank is active (1) or inactive (0)
`is_rtgs`	number\|null	Whether Real-Time Gross Settlement is supported (1) or not (0/null)
`active`	number	Active status (1 = active, 0 = inactive)
`is_24hrs`	number\|null	Whether 24-hour transfers are supported (1) or not (0/null)
`created_at`	string	Timestamp when bank was added
`updated_at`	string	Timestamp when bank information was last updated
`currency`	string	Currency code (ETB, USD)

Failed Response

{
  "message": "Invalid API Key",
  "status": "failed",
  "data": null
}

Refer to our Error Codes page for all responses for this request.

Use Cases

This endpoint is useful for:

Transfer Integration: Get bank codes to use when initiating transfers
Account Validation: Use acct_length to validate account numbers before transfers
UI Development: Populate bank selection dropdowns in your application
Feature Detection: Check is_24hrs and is_rtgs to show available features
Mobile Money: Identify mobile money providers using is_mobilemoney field

Example Usage

When initiating a transfer, use the id field from the bank list as the bank_code:

// First, get the list of banks
const banksResponse = await fetch('https://api.chapa.co/v1/banks', {
  headers: {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_SECRET_KEY'
  }
});

const banksData = await banksResponse.json();
const telebirrBank = banksData.data.find(bank => bank.slug === 'telebirr');

// Use the bank id as bank_code in transfer request
const transferData = {
  account_name: "John Doe",
  account_number: "0912345678",
  amount: "100",
  currency: "ETB",
  bank_code: telebirrBank.id, // Use the id from bank list
  reference: "unique-ref-123"
};

Next Steps

Transfer - Initiate a transfer using bank codes
Bulk Transfer - Send money to multiple recipients
Verify Transfer - Verify transfer status
Error Codes - Handle errors gracefully

Bank List