Multi-nucleon transfer reactions⁵⁶Fe(¹²C, X) have been studied at an incident¹²C energy of 60 MeV. Angular distributions of¹⁰Be and⁹Be corresponding to 2p and 2p 1n transfer reactions in transition to low-lying states in the residual nuclei have been measured. The angular distribution data for 2p transfer have been analysed in terms of finite range DWBA calculations assuming a one-step transfer of two protons. The spectroscopic factors for three low-lying transitions observed in⁵⁶Fe(¹²C,¹⁰Be)⁵⁸Ni have been extracted. Transfer probabilities for the ground state transition in two- and three-nucleon stripping channels have been obtained and compared with the corresponding sequential transfer probabilities in order to emphasise the role of direct transfer of nucleons vis-a-vis sequential transfer.