HSBC Connect
SWIFT MT940 Specification
Copyright. The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited 2013. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this document may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, on any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited. The contents indicated in
this guide are subject to change without a preliminary announcement in the future.
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D E S I G N
C U S T O M I Z A T I O N
MT940 Customer Statement Message
The MT940 message is a SWIFT message type. This message is
normally sent by an account servicing institution (reporting institution)
to a financial institution (concentrating institution), which has been
authorized by the account owner to receive it. It is used to transmit
detailed information about all entries booked to the account.
T
he MT940 message format is also a recognized market standard to facilitate integration
between a bank’s electronic banking solution and a customer’s ERP environment and can
facilitate the automation of the account reconciliation process. In the HSBC environment,
the SWIFT MT940 reporting is also used to support the account reporting needs of the
customers’ making use of HSBC Connect, our host-to-host delivery channel.
The purpose of this guide is to provide HSBC Connect customers with detailed specifications on
the format of the messages that they will receive from HSBC to facilitate the development of an
appropriate interface and reconciliation routine with their ERP system.
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MT940 General Format Specifications
Status
Tag
Field Name
Content / Options
M
20
Transaction reference number
16x
M
25
Account Identification
35x
M
28C
Statement Number / Sequence Number
5n[/5n]
M
60a
Opening Balance
F or M
O
61
Statement Line
*
O
86
Information to Account Owner
6*65x
M
62a
Closing Balance (Booked Funds)
F or M
O
64
Closing Available Balance (Available Balance)
1a6n3a15d
O
65
Forward Available Balance
1a6n3a15d
O
86
Information to Account Owner
6*65x


The MT940 message can be divided into 3 main sections:

The first section covers Tag 20 to Tag 60a. It allows the identification of the statement and
of the underlying account and also provides the statement opening balance.

The second section provides the detailed information related to individual account entries.
There is one statement line (Tag 61) per account entry. Individual statement lines may also
be supplemented by additional narrative type information provided in Tag 86.

The last section provides the information related to the closing balance or closing
intermediary balance. The bank may also include a specific message to the customer
through an optional Tag 86 at the end of the message. This tag does not relate to any
specific account entry.
The SWIFT network limits the size of message to 2000 characters. Hence, to report all the
entries booked to a particular account, the bank may need several sequential MT940
messages. The link between individual messages can easily be established through the use
of the sequence number in Tag 28C and the use of the option F or M in Tag 60a and Tag 62a
(see next section for detailed explanations).
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Detailed Tag Field Specifications
First Section – Tag 20 to Tag 60a
Tag 20 – Transaction Reference Number (TRN)
16x
This field specifies the reference assigned by the Bank to identify unambiguously the message.
The TRN may be the same or different for the separate messages of a statement consisting of
several MT940 messages.
The formatting rules used by HSBC in Asia Pacific are as follows:
Hong Kong: STMHKHyynnnnn
Where yy is the year of the transaction and nnnnn is the statement number (incremented by one
for each statement for that account within the year).
Other countries: STMccc999999AAA[a]
Where:
ccc is the site code. It may be equal to the branch mnemonic (e.g. SGH)
999999 is a system generated number. The first 2 digits equal the last 2 digits of the
current year.
AAA is a 3 character code. It can be customized to suit the needs of the recipient (e.g.
CUA).
[a]: I applies to intra-day statement. E is used for end-of-day statement. No character is
used for weekly or monthly statement.
Tag 25 – Account Identification
35x
This field identifies the account for which the statement is sent.
The formatting options available from HSBC are as follows:




999999999999
999-99999-999
999999999999 ACCOUNT NAME
999-999999-999 ACCOUNT NAME
The format depends on whether the options to hyphenate the account number and to report the
account name are chosen. The length of the account name is limited to 20 characters.
In Hong Kong, we can only support the 3rd option (i.e. no hyphen with account name).
Tag 28C – Statement Number / Sequence Number
5n[/5n]
This field contains the sequential number of the statement, optionally followed by the sequence
number of the message within that statement when more than one message is sent for one
statement.
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The statement number is reset to 1 on January each year.
If used, the sequence number always starts with 1. When several messages are sent to convey
information about a single statement, the first message must contain ‘/1’ in Sequence Number.
The sequence number is then incremented by one for each additional message.
The statement number and sequence number enable the customer to put the different messages
into sequence and thus form the complete statement.
Example:
first message of statement is:
2nd message of statement is:
28C:235/1
28C:235/2 and so on.
Tag 60a – Opening Balance
1a6n3a15d
This field specifies, for the (intermediate) opening balance, whether it is a debit or credit balance,
the date, the currency and the amount of the balance.
FORMAT
Option F (first opening balance):
60F
Option M (intemediate opening balance)
1. 1a
60M
(D/C Mark)
2.
6n
(Value Date)
3.
3a
(ISO Currency Code)
4.
15d
(Amount)
This field must be the same as field 62a (closing balance) of the previous customer statement
message for this account.
The first customer statement message for a specified period must contain field 60F (first opening
balance); additional statement messages for the statement period must contain field 60M
(intermediate opening balance).
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Second Section – Tag 61 and Tag 86
Tag 61 – Statement Line
6n4n2a[1a]15d1a3c16x[//16x][34x]
This field contains the details of each transaction.
FORMAT of individual sub-fields
1.
6n
Value Date (YYMMDD)
2.
4n
Entry Date (MMDD)
3.
2a
Debit/Credit Mark (D, C, RD, RC)
4.
[1a]
Funds Code (3rd character of currency code, if needed)
5.
15d
Amount
6.
1a3c
Transaction type identification code
7.
16x
Reference for the Account Owner (customer reference)
8.
[//16x]
Bank Reference
9.
[34x]
Supplementary details
Sub-field 3 (D/C mark) must contain one of the following codes:




D
C
RC
RD
Debit
Credit
Reversal of credit (debit entry)
Reversal of debit (credit entry)
The length of sub-field 5 (Amount) can be adjusted according to the amount reported.
Comma is used as
decimal point (e.g. 15000000,90)
Sub-field 6, Transaction Type Identification Code, may be completed in one of three ways:
1.
S3n for entries related to SWIFT transfer instructions and subsequent charge
messages. The last 3 characters will indicate the message type of the SWIFT message
causing the entry.
2.
N3c: for entries related to payments and transfer instructions, including related charges
messages, not sent through SWIFT or where alpha description is preferred.
3.
F3c for entries being first advised by the statement (items originated by the Bank)
The detailed list of the 3-character codes supported by HSBC is provided in a subsequent section.
Sub-field 7, Customer Reference, may vary in length subject to the length of the underlying reference.
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Sub-field 8, Bank reference.
If present, it is separated from the previous field by ‘//’, a separator required
by SWIFT. It has a maximum length of 16 characters.
Sub-field 9, Supplementary details, is optional
and can be used to provide additional narrative type
information.
Tag 86 – Information to Account Owner
6*65x
This field contains additional information on the transaction detailed in the preceding statement
line and which is to be passed on to the account owner.
Detailed formatting rules for specific payment and transaction types, as processed by HSBC, are
provided separately.
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Last Section – Tag 62a to Tag 86
Tag 62a – Closing Balance
1a6n3a15d
This field specifies for the (intermediate) closing balance, whether it is a debit or credit balance, the
date, the currency and the amount of the balance.
FORMAT
Option F (final closing balance):
Option M (intemediate closing balance)
1. 1a
(D/C Mark)
2. 6n
(Value Date)
3. 3a
(ISO Currency Code)
4. 15d
(Amount)
60F
60M
The content of this field will be repeated in field 60a of the subsequent customer statement
message.
If there is only one customer statement message transmitted for the period, this field must use tag
option F, i.e., 62F (final closing available balance). When several messages are transmitted for
the same statement period, all messages except the last one must contain field 62M (intermediate
closing balance); the last message of the statement must contain 62F.
Tag 64 – Closing Available Balance
1a6n3a15d
This field indicates the funds that are available to the account owner.
Tag 65 – Forward Available Balance
1a6n3a15d
This field indicates the funds that are available to the account owner (if a credit or debit balance)
for the specified forward value date.
Tag 86 – Information to Account Owner
6*65x
This field contains additional information on the statement as a whole, which is to be passed on to
the account owner.
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List of Transaction Identification Codes Supported by HSBC
SWIFT Transaction Type Identification
Code
Description
TRF
Transfer
CHG
Charges and other expenses
CHK
Cheques
CMS
Cash Management item – sweeping
FEX
Foreign exchange
INT
Interest
MSC
Miscellaneous
SEC
Securities
S103
SWIFT Transaction – Customer transfer
S200
SWIFT Transaction –Bank Transfer for own
account
S202
SWIFT Transaction – Bank Transfer
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