Bank statement abbreviations and codes

Open any bank statement and you hit a wall of short codes: CO, OD, POS, ACH, DDA, EFT, NSF, DEP, INT, ATM, IB, XFER, and a hundred local variants. Banks use them so a printed statement stays compact and their systems can classify a transaction without the full description. That is fine for the bank. For you it turns a routine review into a decoding exercise.

This page is the complete version. It covers the abbreviations you will realistically see on a personal or business statement in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, the EU and most of Asia, plus card, wire, crypto and processor codes. Every section is a table, so you can scan the left column and stop reading as soon as you find your code.

On this page

• How to read any transaction line in five seconds
• The everyday codes worth memorising
• What CO means on a bank statement
• OD, NSF and the overdraft family
• Card and payment method codes
• Processor prefixes: SQ*, TST*, PP* and the rest
• Deposits and incoming money
• Check-related codes
• Wire transfer codes
• UK and European statement codes
• Canadian statement codes
• Australian and New Zealand codes
• Asian and Middle East codes
• Peer-to-peer and app payment codes
• Crypto and exchange codes
• Fee, adjustment and internal codes
• Merchant category codes (MCC)
• Credit card statement specifics
• Reference numbers and trace codes
• Real statement lines decoded
• Codes that vary by bank, not by country
• Checking codes versus credit card codes
• Codes that signal fees or fraud
• When the code actually matters
• How Karchu handles the codes for you
• Frequently asked questions
• A-Z index of every code on this page

How to read any transaction line in five seconds

Every statement line is built from the same four pieces, and the code is only the second one.

1. The date, either the transaction date or the posting date.
2. A method code, telling you how the money moved: POS, ACH, WIRE, CHK, ATM, XFER.
3. A source or merchant identifier, sometimes prefixed by the processor (SQ*, TST*, PYPL, PP*).
4. A reference or trace number, plus optional location or memo.

Once you can spot those four pieces, the code is just a label on part two. The merchant name in part three is almost always what you actually want.

Real statement lines decoded

Five typical lines, taken apart piece by piece.

POS DEBIT SQ *BLUE BOTTLE 8837 OAKLAND CA 09/12 4.75
A card purchase at Blue Bottle Coffee, processed through Square, terminal 8837, in Oakland, on September 12, for 4.75 USD.

ACH DEBIT COMED UTILITY PMT WEB ID: 1361216421 -142.16
An ACH pull by ComEd for a utility payment, initiated through their web portal. The 10-digit WEB ID is ComEd's company identifier in the ACH network.

FPS RCV KARCHU LTD REF: JULY SALARY 3,150.00
A UK Faster Payments credit from Karchu Ltd, referenced as July salary, for 3,150 GBP.

WIRE OUT REF# 20260710123456 BEN: JOHN DOE BOFA NY 1500.00
An outgoing wire on July 10, 2026, trace number 20260710123456, beneficiary John Doe at Bank of America New York, 1,500 USD.

CO 1042 -85.00
A paid paper check, check number 1042, for 85.00 USD.

Codes that vary by bank, not by country

Two banks in the same country routinely print different codes for the same event, which is why generic decoders get it wrong.

• Chase writes card purchases as a bare merchant string with no method prefix, so the absence of POS does not mean it was not a card.
• Bank of America uses CHECKCARD for debit card purchases and PURCHASE for the same event on some product lines.
• Wells Fargo prefixes recurring card billing with RECURRING PAYMENT, a genuinely useful signal for subscription detection.
• Barclays and HSBC use BP for bill payment, DD for direct debit, SO for standing order, and FPI or FPO for Faster Payments in and out.
• ING and Rabobank spell the rail out in Dutch, such as SEPA Overboeking or Betaalautomaat, and split the description across several lines.
• Sparkasse and Volksbank use Lastschrift, Dauerauftrag and Kartenzahlung rather than short codes, alongside a mandate reference.
• Indian banks use UPI, NEFT, IMPS, RTGS and ECS, with the counterparty VPA embedded in the UPI string.

The takeaway is the same everywhere: match on the merchant portion, never on the bank specific prefix. Karchu keeps a per-bank profile so the prefix is stripped before rules run, which is covered in how to categorize a bank statement.

Checking codes versus credit card codes

The same three letters can mean different things depending on which statement you are holding.

Codes that signal fees or fraud

Treat these as a monthly review list rather than a category.

• OD, NSF, RTN, UNCOL: returned payments and overdrafts. Each usually carries a fee, and a cluster of them is what an underwriter reads as cash flow stress.
• CASH ADV: credit card cash, priced higher with no grace period. Rarely intentional.
• FOREIGN TXN FEE, FX, CROSS BORDER: card markups on overseas spending. Worth totalling annually before choosing a card.
• PREAUTH without a matching settlement: a hold that never cleared. Harmless, but it makes available balance look lower than it is.
• Small repeating test charges: amounts around one unit of currency from unfamiliar merchants, often a stolen card being validated before a large charge.
• REV or DUP shortly after a purchase: a double charge that was caught. If the reversal never lands, dispute it.
• Unknown processor prefixes such as SP *, TST* or PYPL followed by a name you do not recognise: usually a legitimate reseller, occasionally not. The prefix identifies the processor, not the merchant.

If you are checking a statement someone else supplied, the code list is only half the job. Layout, font and balance arithmetic matter more, which is the subject of how to detect fake bank statements.

When the code actually matters

Most of the time the code is decorative and the merchant name carries the meaning. These are the exceptions.

• OD, NSF, RTN, UNCOL: red flags for a lender or accountant. Tag them separately when you package statements for an underwriter.
• WIRE, CHAPS, RTGS, TARGET2: large, expensive transfers. Worth annotating in memos so you can trace them later.
• REV, ADJ, CORR: bank corrections. Match them to the original transaction so your history stays clean.
• PREAUTH, PENDING: watch for the paired final settlement. Sometimes the hold clears and no real charge lands, which makes cash flow look tighter than it is.
• INT CHG, CASH ADV: expensive credit card items. They should be visible in a monthly review, not buried in a fees total.
• DIR DEP and SSA: use these to confirm income for tax or benefits paperwork.

How Karchu handles the codes for you

Karchu strips the code, keeps the merchant name, and runs your rules against the human-readable part.

Reading codes by hand is fine for one statement. It stops scaling the moment you have six months of data across three accounts. The raw description stays on every transaction row for auditing, and the cleaned version is a one-click toggle.

A rule saying "any description containing UBER EATS is Food Delivery" matches POS DEBIT UBER EATS 8837 SAN FRANCISCO CA without you teaching it what POS means. That is the deterministic side of the analyzer: strip noise, keep signal, apply rules once, get the same total every time. The same rules can flag any line containing OD, NSF or WIRE so they land in a separate audit view.

Frequently asked questions

What does CO mean on a bank statement?

On a US checking statement CO is a paid check, usually followed by the check number. On a credit card statement CO means charge off, which is the issuer writing the balance off as a loss after long term non payment. The two meanings are unrelated, so read it in context of the account type.

What does DDA mean on a bank statement?

DDA stands for demand deposit account, which is the formal banking name for a checking account. A line such as DDA TO DDA XFER is simply a transfer between two checking accounts, usually your own.

What does XFER mean on my statement?

XFER, sometimes written TFR, is a transfer of money between accounts. Most of the time it is a movement between two accounts you own, such as checking to savings, so it is not spending and should not be counted as an expense.

What is the difference between POS and ACH?

POS is a card transaction authorized at the moment of purchase. ACH is a batched bank to bank transfer that settles a day or more later. A subscription billed to your card shows as POS, the same subscription billed to your account number shows as ACH.

Which codes should worry a lender or accountant?

OD, NSF, RTN and UNCOL show returned payments and overdrafts, which underwriters read as cash flow stress. CASH ADV and INT CHG on card statements signal expensive borrowing. Repeated REV or ADJ entries suggest the account has ongoing corrections worth explaining.

Why does the same merchant appear with different codes each month?

The code describes the payment rail, not the merchant, and the rail can change. A merchant that used a card in January and a direct debit in February appears as POS and then ACH or SEPA. Categorize on the merchant name and ignore the rail code.

A-Z index of every code on this page

172 codes, alphabetical, each linked to the section that explains it.

Where to go next

To do something with the transactions after decoding them, start with how to analyze bank statements, or read how transaction categorization works. If you have a stack of PDFs and want them in Excel, the PDF to Excel guide walks through it. And if you are curious about the machinery underneath, AI vs rule-based analysis explains why deterministic rules beat guessing when money is on the line.