MINOS format converter for France

The MINOS domestic format converter for France is defined in the Handbook of SIT Interbank Transaction Standards, and is administered by GSIT, the French Interbank Teleclearing System.

This handbook contains the structure of the transactions used for interbank payment information. This document is available to order from the web site: www.gsit.fr/Gb/information/minos.htm.

For the MINOS format, there are various payment types handled through the current system, but only a very few correspond to the payments processing defined by the SEPA rules and datasets. The first payment types of interest are the Virements (sweeps, credit transfers), which are the most common kind of operations handled through the interbanking in France. These map to SEPA Credit Transfer processing. The credit transfer is identified by the ‘code opération’ in the SIT part of the record = 120. The second payment type of interest is the Prelevement (direct debit) which correspond to SEPA Direct Debit processing. Different types of direct debits exist, however, the direct debit example included with the SEPA components uses the message with a 'code operation' = 180 (‘Prélèvements 4 jours).

MINOS distiguishes two message directions:
  • ‘Aller’ – from the Bank to the Clearing House (ACH)
  • ‘Retour’ – from the Clearing House to the Bank

Each of these directions can handle different types of operations (Credit transfer, Direct Debit)

'Remise aller' is a payment file containing the following:
  • A header record
  • 1-N payment operations of a same category and for the same settlement date:
    • Same category means : same type of operation (credit/debit), same currency, same urgency, same end of day (time period)
  • A summary record containing control information:
    • Number of operations
    • Total amount
    • Signature
'Remise retour' (remittance ACH to bank) ) : a payment file containing:
  • A header record
  • 1-N payment messages to be posted in the same basket, composed of :
    • A header record containing the installation number of the issuer
    • 1-N operations issued by the same sender
    • A summary record (number of operations, total amount
  •  A summary record containing control information
    • Number of messages
    • Total amount
    • Signatures