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SIC code lookup, and what it means for card payments
All 731 Companies House SIC codes, searchable by number or by what the business actually does. Plus the column no other SIC list has: the merchant category code an acquirer is likely to put you on.
All 731 codes
| SIC | What Companies House calls it | Likely MCC |
|---|---|---|
| 01110 | Growing of cereals (except rice), leguminous crops and oil seedsA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01120 | Growing of riceA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01130 | Growing of vegetables and melons, roots and tubersA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01140 | Growing of sugar caneA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01150 | Growing of tobaccoA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01160 | Growing of fibre cropsA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01190 | Growing of other non-perennial cropsA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01210 | Growing of grapesA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01220 | Growing of tropical and subtropical fruitsA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01230 | Growing of citrus fruitsA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01240 | Growing of pome fruits and stone fruitsA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01250 | Growing of other tree and bush fruits and nutsA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01260 | Growing of oleaginous fruitsA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01270 | Growing of beverage cropsA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01280 | Growing of spices, aromatic, drug and pharmaceutical cropsA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01290 | Growing of other perennial cropsA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01300 | Plant propagationA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01410 | Raising of dairy cattleA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01420 | Raising of other cattle and buffaloesA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01430 | Raising of horses and other equinesA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01440 | Raising of camels and camelidsA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01450 | Raising of sheep and goatsA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01460 | Raising of swine/pigsA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01470 | Raising of poultryA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01490 | Raising of other animalsA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01500 | Mixed farmingA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01610 | Support activities for crop productionA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01621 | Farm animal boarding and careA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01629 | Support activities for animal production (other than farm animal boarding and care) n.e.c.A · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01630 | Post-harvest crop activitiesA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01640 | Seed processing for propagationA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 01700 | Hunting, trapping and related service activitiesA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 02100 | Silviculture and other forestry activitiesA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 02200 | LoggingA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 02300 | Gathering of wild growing non-wood productsA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 02400 | Support services to forestryA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 03110 | Marine fishingA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 03120 | Freshwater fishingA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 03210 | Marine aquacultureA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 03220 | Freshwater aquacultureA · Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 05101 | Deep coal minesB · Mining and Quarrying | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 05102 | Open cast coal workingB · Mining and Quarrying | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 05200 | Mining of ligniteB · Mining and Quarrying | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 06100 | Extraction of crude petroleumB · Mining and Quarrying | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 06200 | Extraction of natural gasB · Mining and Quarrying | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 07100 | Mining of iron oresB · Mining and Quarrying | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 07210 | Mining of uranium and thorium oresB · Mining and Quarrying | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 07290 | Mining of other non-ferrous metal oresB · Mining and Quarrying | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 08110 | Quarrying of ornamental and building stone, limestone, gypsum, chalk and slateB · Mining and Quarrying | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 08120 | Operation of gravel and sand pits; mining of clays and kaolinB · Mining and Quarrying | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 08910 | Mining of chemical and fertilizer mineralsB · Mining and Quarrying | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 08920 | Extraction of peatB · Mining and Quarrying | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 08930 | Extraction of saltB · Mining and Quarrying | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 08990 | Other mining and quarrying n.e.c.B · Mining and Quarrying | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 09100 | Support activities for petroleum and natural gas miningB · Mining and Quarrying | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 09900 | Support activities for other mining and quarryingB · Mining and Quarrying | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 10110 | Processing and preserving of meatC · Manufacturing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 10120 | Processing and preserving of poultry meatC · Manufacturing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 10130 | Production of meat and poultry meat productsC · Manufacturing | Assigned by the acquirer |
| 10200 | Processing and preserving of fish, crustaceans and molluscsC · Manufacturing | Assigned by the acquirer |
The condensed SIC 2007 list as published by Companies House, which is the one a filing asks for. No sign-up, and nothing you type leaves your browser.
Two codes, two owners, two purposes
Every limited company has a SIC code and almost none of them know their MCC. The second one is the one that costs money.
You choose your SIC code. It goes on the public record at Companies House, it describes the company, and it exists so the government can count industries. Nobody prices anything off it.
Your acquirer assigns your merchant category code. It describes what you sell, it travels with every card transaction you take, and it drives interchange, issuer risk scoring and whether your application is screened as higher risk before a human reads it. You do not pick it and you are often not told it.
Which is why the two can diverge. A company filed under a broad consultancy SIC code that actually sells subscriptions online will be underwritten as a subscription business, because that is what the transactions look like. The filing does not decide it. How acquirers classify a business →
What to do with this
- Filing or incorporating? Search by activity rather than by number, and pick the code that describes what you actually do. You get up to four; most companies need one.
- Applying for card processing? Ask which MCC the provider intends to assign you, and why. It is a fair question and a straight answer tells you something about them.
- Already processing? Find your MCC on your statement or ask your provider, then look it up in the MCC lookup to see what it says about you.
Frequently asked questions
A Standard Industrial Classification code describes what your company does. Companies House requires at least one when you incorporate and again on every confirmation statement, and it is published on your public record. You choose it yourself from the condensed SIC 2007 list.
Up to four. Most companies need one. If you genuinely do several unrelated things, list them in order of importance, because the first is what most people reading your record will take as your main activity.
Nothing immediately, and you can change it on your next confirmation statement. It matters more than it looks, though: lenders, insurers, suppliers and payment providers all read it, and a code that does not match what you actually do invites questions at exactly the wrong moment.
No, and confusing them causes real problems. A SIC code is chosen by you and describes the company, for Companies House. A merchant category code is assigned by your acquirer and describes what you sell, for card pricing and risk. They are different taxonomies with different owners, and two companies sharing a SIC code often end up on different MCCs.
No. The acquirer assigns it during underwriting, based on what your business actually does rather than what you filed at Companies House. You can ask which one they intend to use and why, and you should, because it drives your interchange, your issuer risk scoring and whether you are screened as higher risk.
Because there is no official mapping between the two systems, so we only show a correspondence where it is unambiguous on the face of both descriptions. Anything requiring a judgement call is left blank rather than guessed. For the rest, the honest answer is the one in the column: the acquirer decides.
Dormant company. It is the code for a company that is registered but not trading, and it is the last entry in the Companies House list.
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