AFP Code/Category Catalog

AFP is the "keeper" of the bank codes so they maintain the most accurate and official list of bank service codes. At last count there was about 2,000 items on the list. The list has mostly domestic US bank services on it. Many services provided by non US banks will be missing from the AFP list

There is a logic to the list (just like zip does) with the first two digits designating a service's "family" (e.g. information services).

Your bank can provide you with simple service lists, but you may find bank A's list somewhat different than bank B's list; from past studies of bank account analyses I have found banks to be inconsistent in their use of the service codes.

If you are trying to use the codes to compare prices for similar coded services you may run into an unbundling or "parts" issue where Bank A uses a different number of services to execute a similar service than bank B. In other words, different "car manufacturers" (banks) use a different number of "parts" to build their "cars"; therefore just comparing single part costs may not tell you how much it costs to drive the car (i.e. use a "fully loaded" bank service) off the lot.

Phoenix Hecht publishes price comparisons but only for some of a service's "parts" and only for some services.

Using their work is a good start, but it may not tell you all you need to know to compare price, performance or even why you are using the volume of services being shown each month on your account analyses, often a reflection of a company's internal operations..

You can purchase the Service Codes from AFP. Your bank should map them to the AFP service codes. Note that there is a domestic set of codes and a distinct set of Global Service Codes ( http://www.afponline.org/servicecodes/). Also, there is software that will take your electronic bank statements and map the bank codes to service codes (much set up of course). If you want to benchmark costs another company that offers this service is Informa (http://www.afponline.org/Tertiary.aspx?id=7760)