Bank Mark-Off File

Bank mark-off files are files received from the acquiring banks which contain details of all the successful transactions processed by the Payment Gateway to the relevant acquiring bank.
Merchants can request a mark-off file which can be accessed via SFTP (refer to section “Setting up an SFTP Account” for information on setting this up).
The structure of the mark-off file is determined by the acquiring bank that processed the transactions. Please note that each acquiring bank has a different file format. Detailed specifications for each acquiring bank’s file format are provided in the sections that follow.
The Payment Gateway currently receives mark-off files from the following acquiring banks:

ABSA
Standard Bank
Nedbank
First National Bank

File Structure

A file contains only 1 batch.

Each batch includes:

A header record
Many detail records
A trailer record

Records are defined as detailed level transactions.

Field Parameters

Name

This presents the name of the parameter in the file

Type(Length)

This presents the target data type and the number of characters it occupies in the record

The following abbreviations are used

N - Number

AN - Alphanumeric

NS - Number that is space padded

ANS - Alphanumeric that is spaces padded

Please note that N may also represent a date field

Offset

This column indicates the start and end position in the record for the parameter shown

Description

Where available, a detailed description of the field is also shown

File Name

The file name contains the date of the file as suffix, to ensure uniqueness, and to avoid overwriting existing files.

File Level Rules

A file contains all mark-off entries at the time of processing, across bank (acquirer) purchase/refund transactions.

The total records in the trailer must equal the total count of all detail records in the file.
The amount in the trailer must be the sum of the transaction amount on all detail records.

Record Formatting

The file data is encoded using standard ASCII character set.

Record Delimiters: Each record in the file is delimited by the carriage return line feed, ASCII characters: 0D0A (<CR><LF>).

Field Delimiters: This is a positional formatted file.

Padding: Field’s may be left padded with zero.