Automatic Reconcilliation using MT940 or OFX

[Egbert van der Wal]

On 04/12/13 18:43, Tommy Trussell wrote:
> This sounds like a very shaky legal situation for the bank -- if they 
> don't regularly report an itemized balance statement to you then 
> surely you could sue them over a misunderstanding! Surely there are 
> statements being produced, somewhere, but maybe you "opted" to not 
> receive them?

No. I'm in the Netherlands. If I want to receive statements, I have to 
pay an additional fee to receive them. I can download the transactions 
from the online banking interface for any period I want (with a limit of 
18 months in the past), and I can see the transactions and the account 
balance in that same online banking interface.

> I don't know if you are in the U.S. or another country, but U.S. banks 
> are required to provide regular statements to their 
> depositors/customers. One can choose mailed paper statements or online 
> statements, but most banks charge a fee to mail them nowadays. All the 
> banks I use verify that I have downloaded their statements, and send 
> notices (via postal mail) when I have not.
>
> In any case I believe strongly it would be in your best interest to 
> get copies of the bank's official statements, and to reconcile your 
> accounts to those rather than to a list of transactions.

The MT940 and OFX formats are more than a list of transactions. They 
include a starting and ending balance for every day. How could this pose 
a problem? For any given day, I can see the starting balance, what 
transactions took place on that day and what the resulting ending 
balance is. What conflicts can you imagine that are not resolvable by 
looking at this information?

Regards,

Egbert van der Wal