What is an MT940 file?
MT940 is a structured statement message: a bank describes the movements on an account with tagged lines, so a treasury or ERP system can read them without a human retyping anything. It is corporate plumbing rather than a consumer format.
What it carries
- Account and statement identifiers, so the receiver knows which account and which period the file describes.
- Opening and closing balances, which a spreadsheet export usually omits.
- One line per movement, with the value date, the amount, and the reference the bank attaches to it.
- Debit and credit as separate tags, so the direction of the money is never inferred from a sign.
MT940 and CAMT
CAMT is the XML successor to the MT9xx statement messages. It says the same things in a more verbose, structured way, and it is what the industry has been migrating towards.
In practice both are still in circulation, which is why a converter that takes a statement or a spreadsheet and produces MT940is useful: the bank’s file and the system’s expectation rarely line up on their own.
Frequently asked questions
What does MT940 stand for?
It is a SWIFT message type — MT940 is the message a bank sends a corporate customer to describe the movements on an account over a period.
Is MT940 being replaced?
Yes. The CAMT family of XML messages is the modern replacement for the MT9xx statement messages, and banks have been migrating to it for years. Both still exist in the wild.
What is the difference between MT940 and MT942?
MT940 is an end-of-day or end-of-period statement. MT942 is an intraday report of activity so far — the same idea, sent more often.
Can I open an MT940 file in Excel?
Not usefully. It is tagged lines rather than a table, so a spreadsheet shows it as text. Convert to CSV if you want to read it as columns.
Is my file kept?
No. The file is used only to produce the converted copy and is deleted right after.