MT940 (SWIFT Customer Statement)
MT940 is the SWIFT MT format for end-of-day bank account statements — a tagged-field text message (:20:, :25:, :60F:, :61:, :86:, :62F:) that treasuries and ERPs have consumed for decades, now being replaced by ISO 20022 camt.053.
Anatomy
Each MT940 is a sequence of tagged fields: :20: transaction reference, :25: account identification (usually the IBAN), :60F: opening balance, repeating :61: statement lines (one per transaction: value date, amount, transaction code, references) paired with :86: information-to-account-owner (free text plus structured SEPA subfields like EREF+, MREF+, CRED+), and :62F: closing balance.
The format’s weakness is that :86: — where all the useful remittance detail lives — is essentially free text. Structured SEPA subfields help, but parsing still means handling bank-specific quirks, which is why the ISO 20022 migration matters.
The move to camt.053
MT940’s ISO 20022 successor is camt.053 (bank-to-customer statement): the same information in structured XML — balances become OPBD/CLBD elements, :61: entries become Ntry elements, and remittance data gets dedicated RmtInf fields. Banks already deliver camt.053 alongside MT940; our converters let you bridge both directions — MT940 to CSV for analysis, and MT940 to camt.053 to test your ISO 20022 pipelines before the November 2026 deadline.
Related Standards
- •SWIFT MT standards — Category 9 customer statements
- •ISO 20022 camt.053 — successor format
Free Tools & Resources
Further Reading
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