Direct answer
BAI2 is the Bank Administration Institute cash-management balance reporting file common at US banks: fixed-width numbered records and account trailers that carry control totals. MT940 is a SWIFT customer statement used worldwide: tagged fields such as :61: and :86:, with opening and closing balances but no BAI2-style control-total trailer. Excel opens neither as a cash book. F20 FinanceOps converts both to CSV or Excel and runs the check that belongs to each format. The longer three-format explainer stays on Learn; this page is the pairwise working paper.
If a bank operations person says 'we sent the statement file', they have not told you the format. US treasury portals often mean BAI2. International cash-management portals often mean MT940 or, increasingly, camt.053. Asking 'can you send CSV instead?' sometimes works. Often it does not, because the bank's legal reporting channel is the tagged file.
Choosing between BAI2 and MT940 is rarely the corporates' choice. The bank's stack is. Your choice is how to parse whatever arrived, and whether to ask for the other format as well during a migration.
Where each format comes from
BAI2 (and colloquial 'BAI') is North American balance reporting. Formal BAI1 support ended decades ago; a file called BAI in 2026 is almost always BAI2. Records nest file, group, account, detail, continuation, trailer.
MT940 is a SWIFT MT message for customer statements. It is not 'the SWIFT network' in the sense of sending money. It is a report of what already happened on the account. File extensions lie: .txt might be either format. Sniff the first records — 01/02/03 versus :20: — rather than the name.
What is inside
BAI2: type codes (three-digit), funds type / availability, bank and customer references, control totals in 49/98/99-class trailers, often many accounts in one transmission.
MT940: :60F: opening, :61: amount and date, :86: narrative that may be structured or a heap, :62F: closing. No trailer that repeats the hash of every amount the way BAI2 does. Some banks wrap MT940 in a SWIFT envelope; some do not.
The check that matters
On BAI2, F20 checks opening plus net against the closing in the file's own control records — the tie-out an analyst would do by hand.
On MT940, F20 checks opening plus net against the closing the message states. If those disagree, the file is truncated, misparsed, or the bank's message is inconsistent. All three happen.
Side-by-side
Not a winner. A map.
| BAI2 | MT940 | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical geography | US cash management | Global, still common outside pure ISO 20022 shops |
| Shape | Fixed-width numbered records | Tagged SWIFT text |
| Control totals | Yes, trailers | No BAI-style trailer |
| Balance fields | Status codes on the account record | :60: / :62: tags |
| Excel | Will not parse | Will not parse |
| F20 tool | /tools/bai2-to-csv | /tools/mt940-to-csv |
Workflow after conversion
Same for both: read issues, download rows if you need them, score quality, reconcile to cash book. Do not mix a BAI2-derived CSV and an MT940-derived CSV into one recon without a column that names the source account and currency.
Pricing and privacy
F20 converts either at no charge and does not store the file. Specialist converters: see the best-BAI2 and best-MT940 articles.
Limitations
This page does not replace the three-way Learn article that also includes camt.053. If your bank sent XML, you are not in a BAI2-versus-MT940 story.
Choosing in a mixed group
A US parent with a European subsidiary will see both files in the same close. Do not standardise the subsidiary onto BAI2; the bank will not. Do not standardise the parent onto MT940 unless the US bank actually offers it. Convert each with the matching F20 tool, keep the original files, and recon per account.
If a shared service centre wants one spreadsheet layout, that is a post-conversion mapping problem. Forcing one bank format on every banker is a project that dies in legal. Forcing one CSV layout after parse is a one-page data dictionary.
When someone forwards a file named statement.txt, do not guess. The first bytes decide. BAI2 starts with numbered records. MT940 starts with tags. Guessing wrong and then cleaning the CSV is how you invent a recon that never existed. If both formats arrive for the same account in one week, recon them separately, then explain the overlap. Do not concatenate the CSVs and hope the dates do not collide.
Methodology
Format facts follow F20's catalog and Learn pages, which track the file specifications as used in the engine. Competitor converters are linked, not re-specified here.
Where F20 FinanceOps is a better fit
- You have one of the two files and need rows plus the correct balance check, free, not stored.
- You then want to reconcile the same statement to a cash book on the same site.
Where another option is a better fit
- You need OCR of a printed BAI or MT940 dump: not F20.
- You need MT940 emitted as camt.053: StatementBridge documents that direction.
- You want the three-format textbook: /learn/bank-files/bai2-vs-mt940-vs-camt053 remains canonical.
FAQ
Neither. Better for what? BAI2 has control totals. MT940 is more global. camt.053 is more structured still. You take what the bank sends.
F20 converts each to spreadsheet rows. It does not translate BAI2 into a SWIFT message.
Open it in a text editor. Numbered BAI records versus :20: tags will tell you. Or drop it on the quality tool, which sniffs format from bytes.
Not a real one. Convert first.
/samples/bai2 and /samples/mt940. Synthetic.
Sources
- About F20 FinanceOps — F20 FinanceOps. Verified. Free tools for accountants: convert bank files, reconcile ledgers, and check the books. Not cloud FinOps.
- F20 FinanceOps policies — F20 FinanceOps. Verified. Uploaded files are processed in memory and dropped when the response is sent. There is no charge to run a tool. Output is not professional advice.
- BAI to Excel Converter: Convert BAI2 Files to CSV — BankXLSX. Vendor claim. BankXLSX states the BAI2 parse runs in the browser and reconciles 49, 98 and 99 control totals. The same page also mentions encryption in transit and deleting uploaded files, so the privacy path is not independently settled here.
- MT940 Converter | StatementBridge — StatementBridge. Verified. StatementBridge converts MT940 to camt.053, CSV, Excel, OFX and CODA, aimed at Dutch and European accounting packages.
Convert BAI2 — Use the MT940 tool if the file is tagged :20: rather than BAI records.