“The payee names came through as gibberish codes”
Payee names arriving as "SQ *XPZ4 8005551212" is not an import failure — it is what the bank actually sent. Understanding which field your app reads makes the difference between fighting the file and configuring the app.
Symptoms
Payees appear as merchant codes, phone numbers or reference strings Names are cut off after a couple of dozen characters Categories are empty even though the bank website shows them
What actually causes it
The bank sends a payment-processor string
The NAME field carries whatever the card network passed along, which often begins with a processor prefix and ends with a phone number. The friendly name you see on the bank website is generated by the website, not stored in the file.
Length limits truncate the name
OFX limits the NAME field, so longer merchant strings are cut. Some banks put the full text in MEMO instead, and whether you see it depends on which field your app reads.
Categories are not part of the format
Bank statement formats carry no category information; categories are assigned by your finance app from its own rules. An empty category column is expected rather than a defect.
How to fix it
- Drop the file into the fixer below to confirm it is structurally sound and to see how many transactions it contains.
- Check whether your app can display the MEMO field alongside NAME — for many banks the readable description is there.
- Set up renaming rules in your app rather than editing the file: the next download will contain the same raw strings, and rules apply automatically.
- Accept that categories come from your app's rules, and invest the effort there instead of looking for them in the file.
Related import problems
Skip the manual edit — fix it automatically
The fixer never rewrites payee names beyond escaping characters that break parsing — renaming merchants is a decision for your rules, not a repair. Free, no signup, no upload.
Open the fixer