How to "read" a SWIFT message?

c# banking swift-mt

10,481

Solution 1

The Swift mt940 file format has a header line, a footer line, some mandatory lines with information and then a bunch of lines meaning transactions. The lines start with a :XX: code to indicate what type of line it is.

If you google you can find the spec quite easy from a number of banks. for example:

Solution 2

Maybe I am too late but I actually build an opensource library for this (http://raptorious.com/sharpmt940lib/). Maybe it can assist you?

10,481

Author by

Michael Bruyninckx

Updated on June 27, 2022

Comments

Michael Bruyninckx about 2 years

"SWIFT" meaning Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication

I need to read some files and insert the data in a SQL Server database table using C#.NET. The files are downloaded from a banking software (ABN Amro), and they contain (debit & credit) movements on the account.

It contains a lot of :61: and :86: "tags", it seems almost human readable, but it's not, especially when they're talking amounts, it's impossible to filter those out if you don't have the correct specs.

I'm searching like crazy but I can't find enough information, I mean a document that explains how to interprete these messages/files? Not even on swiftcommunity.net... or maybe I'm not looking on the right spot.

Does that exists, and where?
TomTom over 11 years

+1 That should get him going. IT is a "RTFM" case, but sometimes the manual is just not that easy to find.
Michael Bruyninckx over 11 years

@TomTom: indeed, I know it's a RTFM, but if you don't know what manual is the right one to read, it's really hard to RTFM ;)
Michael Bruyninckx over 11 years

@Filip De Vos: thanks man ! If I knew that it's an MT940 file format I would have found it already... so thank you for clearing out that one !
Filip De Vos over 11 years

Welcome to the wonderful world of bank transmission formats.
Filip De Vos over 11 years

Ideally you should subscribe to the Swift newsletters. They like to change the format every now and then. swift.com/support/drc/index.page?
Michael Bruyninckx over 11 years

The bank has to follow that change too then ;). But I'll do, thanks :)
TomTom over 11 years

@MichaelBruyninckx This is why I did not complaint and upvoted the answer. Especially if you do not even know how the damn format is NAMED - SWIFT is not a good search term in google. Way too much noice. Even "SWIFT file format" likely leads to a lot of external stuff.
Michael Bruyninckx over 11 years

I knew that it was SWIFT, but "SWIFT" seems to be soooo much more than just one template to form message... I tried even "swift" and ":61:" or "swift" and ":86:" but never found anything that I searched for. I knew that it was swift because the extension of the file was SWIFT :)
Jaime García Pérez over 6 years

Is this library still updated? I would like to download it. Thanks Jaco.
Tom Kidd almost 6 years

@JaimeGarcíaPérez it looks like it's here bitbucket.org/raptux/sharpmt940lib