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FF01 means 'Invalid File Format'. The payment message contains a structural, format, or schema validation error that prevents the receiving bank from processing it. It is a technical rejection — the payment data is syntactically wrong, not the beneficiary details. The sender's bank must correct the message and resend.
FF01 is an ISO 20022 ExternalReturnReason1Code. Banks see it when an incoming pacs.008 or MT103 message fails structural validation — for example, a mandatory field is missing, a date is in the wrong format, a BIC has the wrong number of characters, or an IBAN fails the check-digit algorithm.
Common triggers: a mandatory <UETR> element missing or malformed in pacs.008; an MT103 with a date in field 32A that doesn't match YYMMDD format; an IBAN field in field 59 with a non-standard character; or a BIC that doesn't conform to the 8 or 11-character structure.
What to do: the rejection is entirely on the sender's bank. You (as customer) should contact your bank, quote the UETR and the FF01 code, and ask them to correct the outgoing message format and resend. This is a bank error, not yours. Funds will be returned within 2-5 business days.
FF01 means 'Invalid File Format'. The payment message contains a structural, format, or schema validation error that prevents the receiving bank from processing it. It is a technical rejection — the payment data is syntactically wrong, not the beneficiary details. The sender's bank must correct the message and resend.
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