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MT940 is the bank statement format much of the world's corporate banking runs on — and it's almost unreadable without conversion. If your bank or treasury system handed you an MT940 and you need it in Excel, this guide covers the realistic routes and where Export Bank Statement fits. The honest part first: Export Bank Statement converts PDF statements, not MT940 files. If your data also exists as a PDF, the tool produces a checked Excel file directly.
What an MT940 file is
MT940 is a SWIFT messaging standard for end-of-day bank statements. It's a compact text format built from tagged fields: tag 20 is a reference, tag 25 the account, tag 60F the opening balance, each tag 61 a transaction line, tag 86 the narrative for that transaction, and tag 62F the closing balance. It's terse and machine-oriented — designed for treasury and ERP systems, not for people. That density is why a plain text-to-columns import in Excel rarely produces anything usable.
Why convert MT940 to Excel
- You need to read it — MT940's tag soup is opaque to anyone but software.
- Reconciliation or analysis is far easier in a spreadsheet with real columns.
- Your accounting or ERP system wants Excel/CSV, or you're bridging a gap between two systems.
- You're auditing or reviewing transactions and want them sortable.
How to convert an MT940 file to Excel
- Use a dedicated MT940-to-Excel/CSV converter. The tag structure is well defined, so purpose-built tools map tag 61 transactions and tag 86 narratives into clean columns reliably.
- Check your bank portal for a CSV or Excel export. Many banks that produce MT940 also offer a spreadsheet download — the simplest route when available.
- Import MT940 into accounting/ERP software, then export. Systems that consume MT940 can often re-export the booked transactions to CSV.
- Parse it with a script or Power Query. For one-off technical users, splitting on the tag markers (61, 86, 60F, 62F) into rows is feasible but exacting.
- If you also have a PDF statement, convert that. Export Bank Statement turns the PDF into a reconciliation-verified Excel file with date, description, debit, credit, and balance columns.
Where Export Bank Statement fits — honestly
Export Bank Statement does not ingest MT940; its input is PDF. MT940 is a structured file the converters above handle well, whereas PDFs — the format most account holders actually receive — are the difficult case the tool targets. If your bank gave you both an MT940 and a PDF, the PDF route here gives you a checked spreadsheet without wrestling the SWIFT tags.
The balance check
MT940 carries explicit opening (60F) and closing (62F) balances, so a good conversion can be verified against them. Export Bank Statement applies the same idea to PDFs: it ties every extracted line back to the running balance and flags any statement that doesn't reconcile, so you're not chasing a missing transaction across hundreds of rows. For the comma-separated equivalent, see how to convert PDF bank statements to CSV.
Frequently asked questions
Can Export Bank Statement open an MT940 file?keyboard_arrow_down
No. It converts PDF statements only. Use an MT940 converter or your bank's CSV export, or convert the original PDF if you have it.
What do the MT940 tags mean?keyboard_arrow_down
In brief: 20 is the reference, 25 the account, 60F the opening balance, 61 each transaction, 86 the narrative, and 62F the closing balance. A converter maps these into spreadsheet columns.
Is MT940 the same as CAMT.053?keyboard_arrow_down
They serve the same purpose — end-of-day statements — but MT940 is the older SWIFT text format and CAMT.053 is the newer ISO 20022 XML one. See CAMT.053 to Excel.
Is it free?keyboard_arrow_down
Converting a PDF statement is free to start.
Try it on your own statement
Clean Excel/CSV, with every transaction checked to balance.