Wire Transfer Cut-off Times by Bank

This guide puts two things side by side: the hours that the settlement systems publish for themselves, and the cutoffs that a selection of banks in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, India and the Philippines publish on their own public pages. A bank's cutoff is that bank's statement about its own service, for the channel, product and currency it names.

Several of the banks below publish more than one cutoff: NatWest and BMO by channel, Santander UK and NAB by currency, RBC and Scotiabank by destination. A bank that does not publish a cutoff on a public page is not listed here, and the tables are not a ranking. Cutoffs change (Commonwealth Bank says of its own that they are subject to change), so check the current figure on your own bank's page before sending a high-value or time-critical wire.

US banks: domestic Fedwire and international SWIFT

The Fedwire Funds Service, which the Federal Reserve Banks provide, is a real-time gross settlement system generally used for large-value, time-critical payments. For payments that cross a border, the Bank for International Settlements notes that most flow through a correspondent banking network and that the overwhelming majority use the SWIFT messaging service.

U.S. Bank states its times in Central Time and Wells Fargo in Pacific Time. The Eastern Time figures in brackets are this site's conversion, not the banks' wording.

The Fedwire Funds Service itself takes customer transfers until 6:45 PM ET and bank transfers until 7:00 PM ET, when it closes; tax payments and special-account transfers stop earlier, at 5:00 PM ET. The banks in the table publish their own cutoffs for their customers. Use the cutoff for the channel you are actually submitting through.

Fedwire runs on every day that is not a Saturday, a Sunday or a holiday on the Federal Reserve Banks' holiday schedule. The Federal Reserve Banks stay open on the Friday before a holiday that falls on a Saturday, even though most federal employees have that Friday as their holiday, so Fedwire runs on that Friday.

Chase, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo and Citi's business banking help each say that a wire submitted after the cutoff is processed or sent on the next business day. Fedwire itself does not carry a late message over: the Federal Reserve Banks' own example is a bank transfer received at 7:01 PM ET, which is rejected unless the cutoff has been extended. Bank of America says that for a transfer to an international account it begins processing, and debits your account, on the business day you direct it to initiate the transfer.

UK banks: CHAPS for high-value, Faster Payments for retail

UK same-day high-value sterling payments use CHAPS, which settles in the Bank of England's RTGS service. The Bank of England says CHAPS is usually open from 6am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, excluding bank and public holidays in England and Wales. Customer payments must be submitted by 5.40pm; the 6pm close applies to payments between financial institutions.

For lower-value sterling transfers there is Faster Payments, which Pay.UK says is available day and night, 365 days a year. Pay.UK allows individual payments of up to £1 million through the scheme, and each bank or payment provider can set its own, lower limit depending on how the payment is sent and the type of account.

Canada: Lynx

Canadian high-value payments settle through Lynx, which Payments Canada owns and operates. Lynx replaced the Large Value Transfer System (LVTS) and launched in 2021. Payments Canada's Lynx Rule 2 sets the payments processing cycle at 00:30 to 19:00, with Settlement Window 1 running from 00:30 to 18:00; the rule states the times without naming a time zone.

BMO's in-branch cutoff for same-day CAD and USD wires is 4:00 PM ET, earlier than its online one, which is why the channel matters as much as the bank.

Australia: RITS and the New Payments Platform

Australian high-value payments settle in RITS, Australia's high-value settlement system, which the Reserve Bank of Australia owns and operates. The Reserve Bank says that on a normal business day RITS is open for settlement from 7:30 AM until 10:00 PM AEST/AEDT, while its Fast Settlement Service, which settles payments on the New Payments Platform, is available 24 hours a day, on every day of the year.

The New Payments Platform, run by Australian Payments Plus, lets customers make and receive payments 24/7, including weekends and public holidays, using Osko, PayID and PayTo.

India: RTGS and SWIFT

Domestic high-value payments in India settle through RTGS, which settles in the books of the Reserve Bank of India and has been available 24x7x365 since 14 December 2020. NEFT, which the Reserve Bank owns and operates, is also available around the clock and settles in half-hourly batches.

Philippines: PhilPaSSplus and InstaPay

The Philippines' peso RTGS system is PhilPaSSplus, owned and operated by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). It runs from 9:00 AM to 5:45 PM, Monday to Friday. BPI publishes cutoffs for its BizLink corporate online banking: 2:00 PM for payments to other banks over RTGS and 3:00 PM for payments to foreign accounts, Monday to Friday.

For smaller amounts, the BSP's framework FAQ describes InstaPay as real-time, low-value payments of PHP 50,000 and below per transaction, and PESONet as an account-to-account system for bulk, recurring payments that are not time-sensitive. Corridor-specific timing for international remittances is covered in the international remittance settlement times guide.

Working with cutoff times

For a wire that needs to settle on a specific date, work backward:

1. Confirm the destination bank can receive on that date (check for local holidays in the receiving country).
2. For an international wire, allow for the correspondent banks in the chain, and check any extra lead time your bank publishes (RBC and Scotiabank both ask for one business day for some destinations).
3. Submit the wire by the originating bank's cutoff for the channel you are using, on the originating banking day.
4. Leave a buffer: Wells Fargo, for one, says a wire may go through an internal review before it is sent, which can delay it.

To calculate exact send dates, use the Subtract Business Days calculator with the relevant country holiday set. For payroll wires that need to land on payday, see the payroll cut-off guide.

FAQ

What time does Fedwire close?

Fedwire Funds Service takes customer transfers until 6:45 PM ET and bank transfers until 7:00 PM ET, when it closes; tax payments and special-account transfers stop at 5:00 PM ET. Your bank sets its own cutoff for same-day wires: Wells Fargo, for example, publishes 3:00 PM Pacific Time for domestic digital wires, which is 6:00 PM ET. The Fedwire cutoff is the system's own, not your bank's.

Why does my bank's online cutoff differ from the branch cutoff?

Each channel has its own published cutoff, and online is not always the earlier one. BMO, for example, publishes 4:00 PM ET for same-day CAD and USD wires in branch and 5:50 PM ET for straight-through wires in Online Banking for Business, while NatWest publishes 2:59 PM for CHAPS in branch and 5:30 PM through Bankline. Use the cutoff for the channel you will actually use.

What is CHAPS and how does it differ from Bacs?

CHAPS is the UK's same-day high-value sterling payment system, settled in the Bank of England's RTGS service. The Bank of England says it is usually open from 6am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, excluding bank and public holidays in England and Wales, and customer payments must be submitted by 5.40pm. Bacs carries Direct Debits and Direct Credits such as salaries, and Pay.UK describes it as running on a three-day processing cycle. The difference is timing: CHAPS settles on the day, Bacs over three.

Are cutoff times the same on Fed holidays?

No. Fedwire does not run on Federal Reserve holidays, so a wire that travels over Fedwire cannot settle on one; U.S. Bank, for example, says wires sent on weekends and holidays are processed the next business day. When a holiday falls on a Saturday, the Federal Reserve Banks stay open on the Friday before, even though most federal employees have that Friday as their holiday, so Fedwire runs as normal that Friday. Bank of America lists local bank holidays and delays by an intermediary bank among the things that can delay an international wire. Check the current year's holiday list published by the Federal Reserve Board.

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