Files & formats

The channels a company uses to exchange payment files (such as pain.001) and account statements (such as camt.053) with its bank.

• EBICS: the Electronic Banking Internet Communication Standard, the usual secure file-transfer protocol for corporate banking in Switzerland, Germany, France and Austria.
• SFTP: secure file transfer over a dedicated connection, common for larger companies.
• Host-to-host or bank API: a direct automated connection between the company's systems and the bank.
• E-banking upload: manual upload through the bank's online portal, typical for smaller businesses.

An international, XML-based messaging standard for exchanging financial data between banks and their clients. It covers payments, account reporting, securities, trade services, cards and foreign exchange.

ISO 20022 replaced a patchwork of national and proprietary formats with one structured standard, carrying far more detail per transaction than the older SWIFT MT messages. That richer structure is what makes automated reconciliation possible.

Switzerland migrated its domestic payment traffic to ISO 20022 between 2018 and 2022, retiring the old DTA and ESR formats. CAMT, PAIN and SEPA messages are all ISO 20022.

A family of ISO 20022 XML messages used by companies to send payment instructions to their bank. The counterpart of CAMT messages, which flow the other way.

• pain.001 (Customer Credit Transfer Initiation): instructs the bank to make payments. The standard format for submitting a payment run.
• pain.008 (Customer Direct Debit Initiation): instructs the bank to collect direct debits.
• pain.002 (Payment Status Report): the bank's response, confirming acceptance or reporting why a payment was rejected.

The older family of SWIFT message types for international payment instructions and reporting, now being replaced by ISO 20022 messages.

• MT940 (Customer Statement Message): end-of-day account statement. The predecessor of camt.053.
• MT942 (Interim Transaction Report): intraday transaction report.
• MT101 (Request for Transfer): payment instruction sent by a corporate client.

SWIFT began migrating cross-border payments from MT to ISO 20022 in 2023. Many banks still offer MT940 alongside camt.053, but it carries less detail, which is why reconciliation is generally more reliable from camt.053.

A family of ISO 20022 XML messages used for cash management and account reporting, sent by banks to their corporate clients.

• camt.053 (Bank to Customer Statement): the full account statement, with every booked entry (debits, credits, fees) and balances. Used for end-of-day reporting, and the message most accounting software imports.
• camt.052 (Bank to Customer Account Report): booked and pending transactions, balances and limits, for intraday reporting.
• camt.054 (Debit/Credit Notification): notification of individual transactions as they are posted, close to real time.