Priority Payments File Specification
| Version | Date | Changes |
|---|---|---|
| 9.4 | 18 June 2026 | Updated external references to ISO and SWIFT official sources. Amendments to address line 2 & 3 (field 21 & 22). Country codes references updated Currency code references updated Updated link to the SWIFT BIC code checker IBAN references updated Added Glossary of Terms |
1.1 Transaction Fields
Each transaction consists of the following fields:
| # | Field Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Transaction Type | To specify whether the transaction is an International Money Transfer (IMT), Priority Payment (PP) or a Non-CBA Payment Request (Non-CBA) |
| 2 | Transaction Description | Short description of the transaction (for your records). |
| 3 | Process Date | The value date of the transaction. |
| 4 | Payment Currency | The currency for the credit side of the transaction (see Currency Codes). |
| 5 | Payment Amount | The amount to be credited. |
| 6 | Debit Amount | The amount to be debited. |
| 7 | Debit Account - Account Number | The debit account number. |
| 8 | Dealer Code | The reference code given by a CBA Foreign Exchange dealer for a negotiated customer rate. |
| 9 | Dealer Exchange Rate | The exchange rate given by a CBA Foreign Exchange dealer. |
| 10 | Intermediary Bank - Bank Code | The bank code of the intermediary bank. |
| 11 | Intermediary Bank - Name | The name of the intermediary bank. |
| 12 | Intermediary Bank - City | The name of the city where the intermediary bank resides. |
| 13 | Intermediary Bank - Country Code | The country code for the intermediary bank (see Country Codes). |
| 14 | Beneficiary Bank - Bank Code | The bank code of the beneficiary bank. |
| 15 | Beneficiary Bank - Name | The name of the beneficiary bank. |
| 16 | Beneficiary Bank - City | The name of the city where the beneficiary bank resides. |
| 17 | Beneficiary Bank - Country Code | The country code for the beneficiary bank (see Country Codes). |
| 18 | Beneficiary -Account Number | The beneficiary account number. |
| 19 | Beneficiary -Account Name | The name of the beneficiary account. |
| 20 | Beneficiary - Address line 1 | Beneficiary address line 1. |
| 21 | Reserved For Future Use | Must be blank - the payment will be rejected if a value is specified |
| 22 | Reserved For Future Use | Must be blank - the payment will be rejected if a value is specified |
| 23 | Beneficiary - City | The city where the beneficiary resides. |
| 24 | Beneficiary - State | The state/region, etc. where the beneficiary resides. |
| 25 | Beneficiary - Postcode | The postal code where the beneficiary resides. |
| 26 | Beneficiary - Country Code | The country code for the beneficiary (see Country Codes). |
| 27 | Beneficiary Payment Details | Long description of the transaction. Sent with the payment for advice to the beneficiary. |
| 28 | Details of Charge | (Non CBA Payment Requests only) Specify if the beneficiary will wear the charges, or if you as the ordering customer will. |
| 29 | Urgent Payment | (Non CBA Payment Requests only) Specify if you wish for your bank to process the payment as urgent. |
| 30 | Ordering Bank - BIC | (Non CBA Payment Requests only) Specify the BIC of the bank where the debit account (field 7) is held. |
1.2 File Format Rules
| No. | Rule Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Each transaction in a file: • Must be a one debit/ one credit transaction; • Can be an IMT, Priority Payment or Non CBA Payment Request (i.e. payment types can be mixed in a file). |
| 2 | Each transaction is separated by a CRLF (Carriage Return and Line Feed) character. Do not insert a CRLF character at the end of the last record in a file. It will create an additional blank record which will result in a warning message: "A formatting error has occurred for 1 row/s. Please ensure the row contains 27 fields." |
| 3 | Each file can contain up to 350 transactions. |
| 4 | Each field in the transaction must end in a comma, except the last field. |
| 5 | Unused fields must be included in the file (i.e.,,). This includes fields that are not applicable to the payment type. |
| 6 | Each numeric (N) field can contain: 0123456789 Note: For amount fields a decimal point is also allowed. |
| 7 | Each alphanumeric (AN) field can contain: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 Space= HEX 20 Hyphen= HEX 2D Apostrophe= HEX 27 Note: The first character in an alphanumeric field must be A to Z, a to z, or O to 9. |
| 8 | Each alpha (A) field can contain: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z |
| 9 | Country codes and currency codes must be upper case characters. |
| 10 | Ensure that a comma is not included within a field, e.g, "Invoices 20061234, 20061235". Ensure that the ampersand character("&") is not used at all. |
| 11 | IMT or Non CBA payment request - Intermediary Bank (fields 10-13) - if payment through an intermediary bank is required, the final payment details must contain a SWIFT BIC code in field 10. This can either be populated directly in the import file, or other detail provided in fields 10-13 to allow a manual search in CommBiz to locate the appropriate SWIFT BIC. |
| 12 | IMT or Non CBA payment request - Beneficiary Bank (fields 14-17) - generally, the most unique piece of information to identify the beneficiary bank is the SWIFT BIC code. However, some banks require the branch name to be quoted as well. The SWIFT BIC can either be populated directly in the import file, or other detail provided in fields 14-17 to allow a manual search in CommBiz to locate the correct bank. |
1.3 Sample File
PP,Import PP,261106,,1,,200010969292,,,,,,,032000,,,,1234567,ABC and Co,,,,,,,,a,
1.5 Priority Payment Field Definition
| No. | Field Name | Requirement | Format Validation | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Transaction Type | Mandatory | • Must be "PP" or "pp". | pp |
| 2 | Transaction Description | Mandatory | • Up to 12AN. | Sales comm |
| 3 | Process date | Mandatory | • Must be exactly 6N. • Must be a valid date specified in YYMMDD format. • Must be greater than or equal to the import date. • Must be less than or equal to 14 months from the import date. | 261106 |
| 4 | Payment Currency | Not applicable for a Priority Payment | ||
| 5 | Payment Amount | Mandatory | • Decimal point is optional. • 1N to 11N before decimal point. • 1N or 2N after the decimal point. • Must be> 0. | 989.99 |
| 6 | Debit Amount | Not applicable for a Priority Payment | ||
| 7 | Debit - Account Number | Mandatory | • Up to 34AN (space - and ,, are not permitted). • Must be an active CommBiz account where the import user has transaction entitlements to "Create" Priority Payments. | 200010130497 (account number must begin with the last 4 digits of BSB code) |
| 8 | Dealer Code | Not applicable for a Priority Payment | ||
| 9 | Dealer Exchange Rate | Not applicable for a Priority Payment | ||
| 10 | Intermediary Bank - Bank Code | Not applicable for a Priority Payment | ||
| 11 | Intermediary Bank - Name | Not applicable for a Priority Payment | ||
| 12 | Intermediary Bank - City | Not applicable for a Priority Payment | ||
| 13 | Intermediary Bank - Country | Not applicable for a Priority Payment | ||
| 14 | Beneficiary Bank - Bank Code (i.e. BSB number) | Mandatory | • Must be exactly 6N. | 032000 |
| 15 | Beneficiary Bank - Name | Not applicable for a Priority Payment | ||
| 16 | Beneficiary Bank - City | Not applicable for a Priority Payment | ||
| 17 | Beneficiary Bank - Country | Not applicable for a Priority Payment | ||
| 18 | Beneficiary - Account Number | Mandatory | • Must be 3AN to 9AN. | 600310145 |
| 19 | Beneficiary - Name | Mandatory | • Up to 32AN. • Must only contain letters, numbers or spaces. | XYZ Pty Ltd |
| 20 | Beneficiary - Address line 1 | Optional | • Up to 40AN • Must only contain letters, numbers or spaces. • Physical address (No post office box address) | 221 George St |
| 21 | Reserved For Future Use | N/A | • Must be blank - the payment will be rejected if a value is specified | |
| 22 | Reserved For Future Use | N/A | • Must be blank - the payment will be rejected if a value is specified | |
| 23 | Beneficiary - City | Conditional - Mandatory if the field 20 'Beneficiary address line 1' is populated | • Up to 19AN. • Must only contain letters, numbers or spaces. | Sydney |
| 24 | Beneficiary - State | Optional | • Up to 4AN. • Must only contain letters and/or numbers. | NSW |
| 25 | Beneficiary - Postcode | Optional | • Up to 4AN. • Must only contain letters or numbers. | 2000 |
| 26 | Beneficiary - Country Code | Conditional - Mandatory if the field 20 'Beneficiary address line 1' is populated | • Must be exactly 2A upper case characters. See Country Codes. | AU |
| 27 | Beneficiary Payment Details | Optional | • Up to 105AN. | Sales commission SeptOct |