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Standard 43

What is Standard 43?​

Standard 43 is a banking standard that regulates and normalizes the transmission of bank account statements. It was developed by Spanish credit institutions through their respective associations, with significant participation from the Spanish Banking Association (AEB). Its primary purpose is to facilitate a critical accounting process, such as bank reconciliation, which is the comparison of a company's bank account information with its accounting records to identify any pending charges or credits and determine the actual cash position.

Banks usually send these files daily to companies that have contracted this service through P2P networks, generally early in the morning. Once received, business systems integrate all these transactions and perform automatic bank reconciliation. Additionally, institutions allow the manual download of this standard.

This standard is available for all types of companies, whether SMEs or large corporations. However, in practice, only larger companies tend to adopt it due to the complexity of its implementation and the high cost of maintenance, especially if the process needs to be automated.

Structure of Standard 43​

From a technical standpoint, Standard 43 is a file with a defined structure that reflects all the transactions (charges and credits) on a company's bank accounts over a certain period of time. Although each bank may structure this file differently, most files include several types of records: initial balance, transactions, and final balance.

To validate the information, it is checked that the initial balance of one day's statement matches the final balance of the previous day and that the sum of all transactions results in the difference between the initial and final balances of that day.

Standard 43 is structured into different blocks that identify all records. It consists of:

  • The header, which includes information about the bank sending the data and the date of the statement.
  • Each bank account that the client has with that bank will open a new block containing information about the initial balance.
  • Within each account, there will be as many secondary blocks as there are registered transactions. Transactions will indicate charges (negative sign) or credits (positive sign) in the bank account. For instance, a received transfer represents a positive transaction, while a cash withdrawal represents a negative one. Each transaction type will be identified by a set of codes, usually depending on each bank. Furthermore, the statement will provide additional information to identify the corresponding transaction (e.g., payment of an invoice, payment of a fee, etc.).
  • End of account, where all information is summarized, detailing the total number of reported transactions, as well as the final balance.

How can we help you?​

Our platform allows you to send a transaction identifier that enables you to reconcile the Standard 43 record with records generated by transactions processed through our integrations.

This field, known as reconciliation, follows some simple rules and recommendations:

  • It is recommended not to repeat its value on the same accounting day.
  • The minimum length is four characters.
  • The maximum length is twelve characters.
  • The first four characters must be numeric, while the rest can be alphanumeric.