Convert MT940 to Excel or CSV

Quick answer

MT940 is a compact SWIFT bank-statement format that machines read easily but people cannot. QuickBankConvert reads the tag structure — the :61: statement lines and :86: narrative blocks — and exports tidy booking date, value date, description, debit/credit, and amount columns as Excel or CSV in seconds. The file is parsed locally in your browser, so your banking data never leaves your device.

What is MT940?

MT940 (sometimes written "MT 940") is a SWIFT message type banks use to deliver an end-of-day customer statement. It was designed for system-to-system transfer between a bank and corporate treasury or ERP software, not for a human to read. The whole statement is a plain-text file — usually with a .sta, .940, or .txt extension — built from short, colon-delimited field tags.

A few of the tags that matter most:

• :20: — the transaction reference number for the statement.
• :25: — the account identification (your IBAN or account number).
• :28C: — the statement and sequence number.
• :60F: / :62F: — the opening and closing balance.
• :61: — the statement line: value date, booking date, debit/credit mark, amount, and a transaction type code, all packed into one dense line.
• :86: — the free-form narrative attached to the line above: counterparty name, payment reference, and remittance information, often split into numbered subfields.

A single transaction therefore spans a :61: line plus one or more :86: lines, with amounts stored as comma-decimal numbers (for example 1234,56) and dates as YYMMDD. It is precise and unambiguous for a computer — and almost unreadable at a glance.

Why MT940 is unreadable by humans

Open an MT940 file in a text editor and you will see something like :61:2506280628DR1234,56NTRFNONREF followed by a wall of :86: narrative. There are no column headers, no alignment, and no obvious separation between one transaction and the next. The debit/credit direction is a single D or C buried inside the line, decimals use commas, and the description can wrap across several tags.

That format breaks the moment you want to actually work with the data:

• You cannot sort, filter, or total a column that does not exist.
• Pasting it into Excel leaves everything in one column, with tags and values jumbled together.
• The comma decimals are misread as thousands separators, corrupting every amount.
• Multi-line :86: narratives land on the wrong rows.

QuickBankConvert understands the structure of the format — not just the raw text order — so each :61:/:86: pair becomes one clean transaction row, with the amount, dates, and direction in their own columns.

Who needs MT940 in Excel?

Plenty of finance roles receive MT940 from their bank and need it as a spreadsheet:

• Treasury teams consolidating balances and cash positions across multiple banks and accounts, where a quick pivot table beats a SWIFT parser.
• Accountants and bookkeepers doing bank reconciliation against ledger entries, matching each statement line to a booked transaction.
• ERP and accounting migrations — when moving between systems (or onboarding a new bank), teams often export historical MT940 and need readable rows to map, clean, and re-import.
• Auditors and analysts who receive a statement file and simply need to read what happened without installing treasury software.

In every case the goal is the same: turn the SWIFT payload into rows a person can read and a spreadsheet can sort.

How to convert MT940 to Excel

1. Upload the file. Drag your MT940 statement (.sta, .940, or .txt) onto the converter. Parsing happens in your browser — the file is not uploaded to our servers for conversion.
2. Review the preview. Check the booking date, value date, description, and amount columns. The :61: amount sign and the :86: narrative are mapped automatically; fix the rare misread inline.
3. Export. Download CSV (free, no account) or Excel (.xlsx, free with an account), then open it in your spreadsheet, treasury, or accounting tool.

Which columns do you get?

QuickBankConvert flattens each statement line into a consistent set of spreadsheet columns:

Opening and closing balances from :60F: and :62F: give you a sanity check that the rows add up.

Is it private?

Yes. QuickBankConvert parses your MT940 statement in the browser — the file is not uploaded to our servers for conversion. You never link a banking login or share credentials. Review the Privacy Policy for how analytics and account data are handled, or see the FAQ for more detail.

Free vs paid

• CSV export is free with no account.
• Excel (.xlsx) export is free once you create an account.
• Plus ($29/mo) and Pro ($49/mo) add more export formats — TSV, JSON, QBO, and QIF, plus Xero export on Pro — and raise the limits.
• Page limits scale by plan: roughly 10 pages on Free, 50 on Plus, and 100 on Pro.
• Batch processing (Pro) lets you drop in a folder of statements and export them together — handy for a year of monthly MT940 files or several accounts at once.

See pricing for current details.

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