MT940 — Customer Statement Message

The end-of-day customer account statement. Forty years of use in corporate treasuries and accounting reconciliation: the standard output of bank cash management gateways.

Purpose

MT940 carries an account statement: opening balance, every debit and credit movement for the period, closing balance, and sometimes a "forward available" balance (j+1 available). It is the input artefact for the corporate-treasury reconciliation process: every movement gets matched to an invoice, an outgoing or incoming transfer, or a direct debit.

MT940 is typically sent once a day, at the close of the banking day, but some banks send several per day for high-turnover accounts. For intraday reporting, banks use MT942 (Interim Transaction Report). When the customer asks for a balance summary without movement detail, it is MT941 (Balance Report).

Block 4 structure

The Block 4 of an MT940 follows a strict sequence: statement identification, opening balance, a series of statement lines (alternating :61: and its optional :86:), closing balance, then complementary balances.

Tags in detail

• :20: Unique statement reference on the bank side (16x). Identifier the client will quote in every later query.
• :25: Account identification. Either the IBAN or a proprietary number. For a multi-currency account, the currency can accompany the value (option 25P with BIC).
• :28C: Statement number / sequence number. Format 5n[/5n]. Sequential, restarting per year as per the bank's convention.
• :60F: Opening balance at the start of the day. Format: D/C + date YYMMDD + ISO currency + amount. C260513EUR1502345,67 = credit 1,502,345.67 EUR on 13 May 2026.
• :61: Movement line. Full format: YYMMDD [MMDD] D/C [Funds] amount N tt ref [//bankRef] [\\nDetail]. Breakdown:
  • YYMMDD: value date;
  • MMDD optional: entry date if different;
  • D/C: Debit, Credit, RD (reversed debit), RC (reversed credit);
  • Funds: currency letter if different from the account;
  • amount: comma decimal;
  • N + 3 letters: transaction type code (NTRF = Transfer, NCHG = Charges, NDDT = Direct Debit, NINT = Interest, NMSC = Miscellaneous);
  • ref: customer reference;
  • //bankRef: optional bank reference after the double slash;
  • a second physical line (continuation after \\n) may complete the detail.
• :86: Information to Account Owner. Following a :61: line, up to 6 lines of 65 characters. Carries the wording, counterparty address, transaction ID, sometimes a proprietary sub-format (German DTAUS, structured CMXL).
• :62F: Closing balance. Same format as :60F:.
• :64: Closing available balance — the usable balance after pending-operation reservation.
• :65: Forward available balance — projected balance on j+1, j+2… based on already-known operations.

Real-world example

EOD statement of an EUR account at BNP Paribas on 14 May 2026, with one debit (the outgoing transfer of the MT103 example) and one incoming credit:

{1:F01BNPAFRPPAXXX0000000000}{2:O9401200260513DEUTDEFFXXXX12345678952605140730N}{4:
:20:STMT20260514001
:25:FR7630006000011234567890189
:28C:00134/001
:60F:C260513EUR1502345,67
:61:2605140514D12500,00NTRFREF20260514001//BNPP
:86:OUR REF: REF20260514001 PAYMENT TO HANS MUELLER GMBH INVOICE 2026-187
:61:260514C8750,50NTRF99002//BNPP
:86:INCOMING TRANSFER FROM CLIENT 0042
:62F:C260514EUR1498596,17
:64:C260514EUR1498596,17
-}

• :20:STMT20260514001 — statement reference.
• :25:FR76300... — account IBAN.
• :28C:00134/001 — statement 134, sequence 1.
• :60F:C260513EUR1502345,67 — opening credit balance 1,502,345.67 EUR on 13 May 2026.
• Line :61: 1: 14 May, debit, 12,500.00, type Transfer (NTRF), customer reference REF20260514001, bank reference BNPP.
• Paired :86:: wording of the payment to Hans Mueller GmbH.
• Line :61: 2: 14 May, credit, 8,750.50, incoming transfer.
• Paired :86:: wording of the origin.
• :62F:C260514EUR1498596,17 — closing credit balance 1,498,596.17 EUR.
• :64: — same available balance (nothing pending).

Common pitfalls

• Value date vs entry date — the YYMMDD + optional MMDD pair in :61: is a confusion magnet. If the bank only sends YYMMDD, it is the value date. For the accounting entry date, look at the second pair or at :86:.
• Comma decimal — every amount uses comma as the decimal separator (a francophone legacy of the standard). English-speaking parsers that force a dot create silent corruption.
• :25: option and multi-currency — for a multi-currency account, the bank may send one MT940 per currency, or a single MT940 with intermediate :60M: / :62M: sub-accounts (rare). Confirm the convention with the bank.
• NMSC = Miscellaneous — a debit with type NMSC is by default a catch-all. Banks often dump fees and interest there, and ERPs categorise them poorly. Map carefully against the :86: wording.
• Character set X — like MT103, accented characters are substituted at send time. For foreign names, plan a tolerant parser or ask the bank for a camt.053 feed (UTF-8).
• Orphaned :86: — a :86: is associated only with the :61: that immediately precedes it (or with the statement header in footer position). A naive parser that aggregates all :86: at the end loses the line-to-wording link.

MX equivalent — camt.053

In ISO 20022, MT940 maps to camt.053.001.10 (Bank to Customer Statement). The XML structure is substantially different: where MT940 interleaves statement lines and wording, camt.053 organises everything under BkToCstmrStmt > Stmt > Ntry, with a rich NtryDtls/TxDtls object per movement.

See the hub page ISO 20022 for the full camt family and the European banks' camt.053 migration roadmap (generalised between 2026 and 2028 depending on the group).

Related messages

• MT942 — Interim Transaction Report, intraday variant of MT940.
• MT941 — Balance Report, no movement detail.
• MT950 — Statement Message for nostro/loro accounts between banks.
• MT900 / MT910 — Debit / Credit Confirmation in real time, complementing the EOD statement.
• ISO 20022 equivalents: camt.053 (statement), camt.052 (intraday), camt.054 (single notification).
• See also: MT103 — the outgoing transfer that will appear as a debit on the next day's MT940.