Convert MT940 to
CSV

Why Convert MT940 Bank Statements to CSV

MT940 is the SWIFT standard for electronic bank statement reporting, used by thousands of banks across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and other regions. While MT940 is excellent for automated bank-to-system data exchange, it is not human-readable and cannot be opened directly in spreadsheet applications like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. Converting MT940 to CSV bridges the gap between your bank's structured data format and the tools your finance team actually uses day to day — spreadsheets, accounting software, and data analysis platforms.

CSV (Comma-Separated Values) is the universal data exchange format supported by virtually every business application. By converting your MT940 statements to CSV, you can import transaction data into Excel for reconciliation, upload it to Google Sheets for collaborative review, feed it into QuickBooks or other accounting packages, or process it with custom scripts and BI tools. The PrimeConnect MT940 to CSV converter handles all the complexity of parsing SWIFT tags, European number formats, and multi-currency statements automatically.

Understanding the MT940 (SWIFT) Format

MT940 stands for “Message Type 940” in the SWIFT messaging system. It was developed by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) as a standardized way for banks to transmit account statements to their customers electronically. The format uses colon-delimited tags to structure data:

• :20: — Transaction reference number, marking the start of each statement block.
• :25: — Account identification, typically containing the IBAN or domestic account number.
• :28C: — Statement number and sequence number for ordering multiple statements.
• :60F: — Opening balance with credit/debit indicator, date, currency, and amount.
• :61: — Individual transaction lines containing the value date, booking date, credit/debit indicator, amount, transaction type code, and customer reference.
• :86: — Transaction narrative or description, providing human-readable details about each transaction. This field often contains sub-fields separated by question marks or other delimiters.
• :62F: — Closing balance, mirroring the opening balance format.

MT940 uses European number conventions — amounts use commas as decimal separators (e.g., 1234,56 instead of 1234.56) and dates use the YYMMDD format. Credit transactions are marked with “C” and debits with “D”, while reversal transactions use “RC” and “RD” respectively. These conventions require careful handling during conversion to prevent data corruption in the output CSV.

Common Challenges with MT940 Files

Working with MT940 files presents several challenges that this converter handles automatically:

• European decimal formats — MT940 uses comma as the decimal separator. Simply renaming the file to .csv will cause Excel and other tools to misinterpret amounts, treating “1234,56” as two separate values. The converter properly parses these amounts and outputs them in your chosen number format.
• Multi-line descriptions — The :86: narrative field can span multiple lines and contain embedded sub-field separators. The converter concatenates and cleans these descriptions into a single, comma-safe CSV field.
• Multiple statement blocks — A single MT940 file can contain multiple statement blocks (separated by :20: tags), each representing a different statement period. The converter processes all blocks and outputs a unified CSV.
• SWIFT envelope wrapping — Some banks wrap their MT940 data in SWIFT message envelopes ({1:...}{4:...}). The parser strips these envelopes automatically.
• Character encoding — MT940 files may include BOM (Byte Order Mark) prefixes and use various line ending styles (CRLF, LF, CR). All encoding variations are handled transparently.

How the MT940 to CSV Converter Works

The conversion process follows three precise steps, all executed in your browser:

1. Parse the MT940 file — The SWIFT MT940 parser reads your file, normalizes line endings and character encoding, then extracts all statement blocks. For each block, it parses the :25: account identification, :60F: opening balance (extracting the currency code), each :61: transaction line (value date, amount, credit/debit indicator, type code, reference), and the associated :86: descriptions.
2. Apply CSV formatting — Your chosen configuration is applied: the selected delimiter separates fields, dates are reformatted from YYMMDD to your preferred style, amounts are converted from European comma-decimal to your chosen number format, and descriptions are escaped for CSV safety (quoting fields that contain delimiters or newlines).
3. Generate and download CSV — The formatted data is assembled into a complete CSV file with optional column headers and either a single amount column (positive/negative) or separate credit and debit columns. The file is generated as a Blob and downloaded directly to your computer.

Importing CSV into Excel

After converting your MT940 file to CSV, open it in Excel by double-clicking the file or using File → Open. If you selected European number format (comma decimals), you may need to use Excel's Text Import Wizard to specify the correct decimal separator. For semicolon-delimited files, Excel should auto-detect the delimiter in most European locale installations. Once imported, you can sort by date, filter by amount, create pivot tables for spending categories, and use VLOOKUP or SUMIFS formulas to reconcile against your accounting records.

Importing CSV into Google Sheets

In Google Sheets, use File → Import → Upload to import your CSV file. Select the matching separator type (comma, semicolon, or tab) and choose whether to replace the current sheet or create a new one. Google Sheets handles UTF-8 encoding natively, so special characters in transaction descriptions (common in European bank data) will display correctly. For European number formats, you may need to adjust the spreadsheet locale under File → Settings → Locale.

Using the CSV Output with QuickBooks

If your goal is to import MT940 data into QuickBooks, the CSV output from this tool serves as an intermediate format. QuickBooks Online supports direct CSV upload via Banking → Upload Transactions. For QuickBooks Desktop, you can use our CSV to IIF Converter to transform the CSV into IIF format, or our CSV to QBO Converter to create a Web Connect file. Alternatively, use our dedicated MT940 to QBO Converter for direct MT940-to-QuickBooks conversion without the CSV intermediate step.

Related Free Accounting Tools

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