How to import a CAMT.053 bank statement

CAMT.053 is the XML account statement of the ISO 20022 standard. Many European banks offer it in their e-banking next to PDF and CSV. Because it is a standard, a budget app can read it without guessing columns, date formats or decimal separators.

CAMT.053, CAMT.054 and CAMT.052

File	What it contains	Use it for a budget?
`camt.053`	The account statement: booked entries of a day or period	Yes
`camt.054`	Notifications about single credits or debits	No
`camt.052`	Intraday account report, may include entries not yet booked	No

Your bank may call the export "ISO 20022", "XML statement" or "camt.053". The file usually ends in .xml; some banks put several statements in a .zip, which you need to unpack first.

Step 1: download the statement

Log in to your e-banking in the browser, open the account, and look for an export or download of the statement. Choose camt.053 and the period you want (a month is a good start). The menu name differs between banks; if you cannot find it, the bank's help pages usually list the formats they offer.

Step 2: import it into PFI

Open Import in PFI and pick the account the statement belongs to.
Select the .xml file. PFI shows "Detected: CAMT.053 statement" and a preview of the rows.
Rows that may already be in PFI are shown next to the existing transaction. Nothing is skipped unless you choose Skip.
Import. New transactions are categorised by your rules and by what PFI has learned from your earlier choices.

If something went wrong, the import history lets you undo a whole import in one step.

What PFI reads from the file

Only booked entries; pending ones are left out, so they do not appear twice later.
The amount, negative for debits (DBIT) and positive for credits.
The booking date, or the value date if the booking date is missing.
The description from the remittance information and additional entry text, and the name of the other party as payee.

Your bank login never goes into PFI. You download the file yourself, and it is read on your PC. Nothing is uploaded.

Common problems

"No booked entries were found"

The file is probably a camt.054 notification or a camt.052 intraday report. Export the account statement (camt.053) instead.

"The file is not valid XML"

The download may be incomplete or zipped. Unpack the .zip, or download the statement again.

My bank only offers CSV or OFX

PFI also imports CSV, OFX/QFX and QIF. For CSV it detects the delimiter and encoding, and you can save the column settings so the next file from the same bank imports in one click.

Get PFI free from the Microsoft Store