Error guides / European banks

European banks

“My MT940 file will not import”

MT940 is the format European banks have used for decades, and it is strict in structure but loose in content: the fields are defined, what banks put in them is not. That combination is why two MT940 files from two banks can both be valid and only one of them import cleanly.

Updated Aug 2026 · Applies to European banks

Symptoms

  • The importer rejects the file as an unknown format
  • Transactions import but payee names and references are missing
  • The closing balance in the file does not match the imported total

What actually causes it

Cause 1

Field 86 content is not standardised

The narrative field carries payee, reference and purpose, but every bank structures it differently — some with subfield codes, some as free text. An importer written for one bank’s conventions extracts nothing useful from another’s, even though the file is valid.

Cause 2

Line length and continuation rules broken by editing

MT940 lines have a maximum length, and long narratives continue on the next line. Opening the file in a program that rewraps text destroys the continuation structure, and the importer then reads fragments as separate fields.

Cause 3

Statement and sequence numbers repeat

Fields 28C carry statement and sequence numbers that some importers use to detect files already processed. Banks that reset these numbers each year cause a January file to look like one imported eleven months earlier.

How to fix it

  1. Never open an MT940 in a word processor or let an editor rewrap the lines — the structure lives in the line breaks.
  2. Check the file with the tool below to confirm it is intact before blaming the importer.
  3. If your software supports it, prefer CAMT.053 over MT940: the newer format carries payee and reference in defined fields instead of free text.
  4. Where narrative parsing is the problem, look for a bank-specific import profile in your software rather than a generic MT940 option.
Lloyds / Nationwide / NatWest“My UK bank CSV will not map correctly”Actual Budget / Firefly III“My bank CSV will not map correctly in Actual Budget”Bank of America“The Bank of America download will not import”European banks“My CAMT.053 file will not import”

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