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Bank Statement Examples: Chase, Wells Fargo, BofA

Annotated bank statement examples from major US banks with explanations of ACH, POS, and other transaction codes you will see on real statements.

What a bank statement actually contains

A US bank statement is a monthly summary of every credit and debit posted to an account. Regardless of the issuer, the same building blocks appear on the page: an account header with the routing and last four of the account number, a period covered, opening and closing balances, a transactions ledger, a fees section, and small print about disputes. Once you can read one, you can read them all. The examples below use realistic mock statements modeled on the three most common US retail banks.

Chase checking statement example

Chase (JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.) statements print in a two-column layout. The left rail shows the account header and a monthly activity summary; the right side runs the transaction ledger. A typical debit line looks like this:

03/12   CARD PURCHASE   03/11 TRADER JOE'S #421 SEATTLE WA   CARD 1234       48.17
03/13   ONLINE TRANSFER TO SAV ...4455 REF #IB0AB1C2D3            500.00
03/15   ACH DEBIT   COMCAST CABLE  BILLPAY  WEB ID 1234567890      92.44
03/18   ATM WITHDRAWAL 000123  4TH AVE SEATTLE WA                 100.00

Notice the leading date is the posting date and the second date inside the description is the transaction date. Chase always prefixes card transactions with CARD PURCHASE, ACH debits with ACH DEBIT, and returns with ACH CREDIT RETURN. Parsers should key on those prefixes, not on the merchant name, which shifts between statement runs.

Wells Fargo checking statement example

Wells Fargo uses a single-column ledger with four columns: date, description, deposits/credits, withdrawals/debits, and ending daily balance. A representative block:

04/02  Purchase authorized on 04/01 Whole Foods Mkt 10345 Portland OR                  72.31
04/03  Recurring Payment authorized on 04/02 Netflix.com Los Gatos CA                   15.49
04/05  Zelle to Alex Rivera on 04/05 Ref #RP0ABCDEF                                    200.00
04/06  Direct Deposit ACME PAYROLL PPD ID 9876543210                              2,450.00
04/10  Overdraft Fee for a Transaction Posted on 04/09                                  35.00

Wells Fargo prints Purchase authorized for card debits, Recurring Payment authorized for subscriptions, and Zelle to or Zelle from for peer-to-peer transfers. Payroll deposits use the Direct Deposit label followed by the ACH company name and PPD identifier.

Bank of America checking statement example

Bank of America splits the ledger into two named sections: Deposits and other additions and Withdrawals and other subtractions. Card purchases appear in a third section labeled Card account subtractions. Sample rows:

05/07  CHECKCARD 0506 STARBUCKS STORE 09234 SEATTLE WA 24445001234567890               6.85
05/08  BKOFAMERICA ATM 05/07 WITHDRWL 401 UNION ST SEATTLE                            80.00
05/10  ONLINE BANKING TRANSFER CONF# 3F7A2K1  TO 4455                                300.00
05/12  ELECTRONIC DEPOSIT ACME CORP DIR DEP                                        2,610.00
05/15  MONTHLY MAINTENANCE FEE                                                        12.00

Bank of America uses CHECKCARD for signature and PIN debit purchases, BKOFAMERICA ATM for cash withdrawals, and ELECTRONIC DEPOSIT for ACH credits. The long 23-digit trailing number on a CHECKCARD line is the acquirer reference number; it is safe to strip when normalizing descriptions.

Common transaction codes and what they mean

  • ACH - Automated Clearing House. A batched electronic transfer between US bank accounts. Payroll, bill pay, and most recurring subscriptions travel over ACH.
  • POS - Point of Sale. A card purchase authorized in person, usually with a PIN.
  • PPD - Prearranged Payment and Deposit. The ACH standard entry class code for consumer credits like direct deposit.
  • WEB - Internet-initiated ACH debit, common for online bill pay.
  • CCD - Cash Concentration or Disbursement. Business-to-business ACH transfer.
  • TEL - Telephone-initiated ACH entry.
  • IAT - International ACH Transaction. Cross-border transfer with extra remittance data.
  • RDC - Remote Deposit Capture. A check deposited via mobile app.
  • NSF - Non-Sufficient Funds. A returned item and the associated fee.

Reading a running balance

Every reliable statement lets you reconstruct the closing balance by summing debits and credits from the opening balance. If your parser drops a decimal point or truncates a leading digit, the running balance stops matching by the third or fourth row. Always reconcile the closing balance printed on the statement against the ledger you extracted. That single check catches most silent parsing errors before they reach your books.

What differs between US, UK, India, Australia, and UAE statements

US statements center on ACH, wire, and card debit categories. UK statements from HSBC, Barclays, and Lloyds add Faster Payments, BACS, and CHAPS labels. Indian statements from HDFC, ICICI, and SBI use UPI, NEFT, RTGS, and IMPS references, and often print debit and credit in separate columns. Australian statements typically use BPAY biller codes and Osko/PayID references. UAE statements from Emirates NBD or ADCB show IBAN routing and dirham-denominated amounts. The building blocks are the same; the payment-network vocabulary changes.

Using these examples with Karchu

Karchu recognizes all of the layouts above out of the box. Upload a real PDF or CSV and Karchu extracts the ledger, normalizes descriptions, tags every transaction, and reconciles against the printed closing balance. No bank login, no data sharing. See our supported banks, the full abbreviations reference, or the parsing pipeline explainer for more detail.