MT940 to CSV Converter

What is an MT940 file?

MT940 is the SWIFT message format banks worldwide use to deliver end-of-day account statements — the international sibling of the BAI2 format American banks use. It's plain text, but everything in it is coded: each field starts with a tag like :20: or :61:, dates are six digits with no century, amounts use a comma as the decimal separator, and the transaction descriptions hide in free-form :86: blocks. For the full anatomy of the format, read What is an MT940 file? in the Learn section.

Who gets MT940 files?

Anyone with a business account at a European, Asian, or international bank has probably seen one — banks in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and across SEPA deliver MT940 (as .sta, .mt940, or .940 downloads) for accounting-package import and treasury reconciliation. ERP and accounting systems like SAP, Exact, DATEV, and Twinfield ingest it natively; if your software doesn't, converting MT940 to CSV or Excel is the fastest way in. US banks send the equivalent data as BAI2 — for those files use the BAI2 to CSV converter instead.

MT940 tags, briefly

• :20: — Transaction reference: The statement's own reference number.
• :25: — Account: The account the statement belongs to, usually an IBAN.
• :28C: — Statement number: Sequential statement/page number, e.g. 00135/001.
• :60F: — Opening balance: D/C flag, date, currency, and amount with a comma decimal.
• :61: — Statement line: One transaction: value date, entry date, debit/credit, amount, and references.
• :86: — Details: Free-form, often multi-line description attached to the :61: above it.
• :62F: — Closing balance: Same shape as the opening balance; the day's end position.

The converter reads all of them — including files wrapped in the SWIFT {1:...}{2:...}{4:...} block envelope and files carrying several statements — and flattens everything into one row per transaction, with ISO dates, signed amounts (debits negative), and reversal entries (RD/RC) kept visible.

How to convert MT940 to CSV

1. Drop your .sta, .mt940, or .940 file above. Parsing happens on your device — the file is never uploaded, which is the right bar for bank data.
2. Check the summary: account, statement count, transaction count, currency, and the opening and closing balances.
3. Preview every transaction — value date, debit/credit, amount, type code, references, and the full :86: details.
4. Export as CSV for Excel, XLSX, or JSON.

For a fuller walkthrough, including multi-statement files and reversals, see How to convert MT940 to CSV or Excel.

Troubleshooting MT940 files

Why does the :86: details field look so different from bank to bank?

The SWIFT standard only says :86: is up to six lines of free-form 'information to account owner' — it never standardized what goes inside. German banks pack it with structured subfields (?20, ?21...), Dutch banks write /TRTP/ and /IBAN/ blocks, UK banks often just write a sentence. This converter keeps the whole field intact, joining the lines into a single Details column so nothing your bank wrote is lost.

Can it handle files with more than one statement inside?

Yes. Banks often deliver a week or a month of daily statements concatenated in one file — either as repeated :20: blocks or as multiple SWIFT messages wrapped in {1:...}{2:...}{4:...} envelopes. The converter reads them all, keeps a Statement column on every row so you can tell the days apart, and reports the opening balance of the first statement and the closing balance of the last.

What's the difference between MT940 and CAMT.053?

They carry the same thing — an end-of-day bank statement — in different clothes. MT940 is the classic SWIFT tag format from the 1980s; CAMT.053 is its ISO 20022 XML replacement, which banks are rolling out under SEPA and the broader ISO 20022 migration. Many banks currently offer both. If your bank has already switched you to XML, use the CAMT.053 to CSV converter instead.

Is this MT940 converter really free?

Yes — every file parses and previews free with no signup and no upload. Free exports include the first 100 transactions; a one-time $19 license unlocks unlimited exports on every LegacyFile tool.