It seems that whatever place is in charge of bank to bank money transfers shuts down on the weekend and holidays - is that correct?
Is this the Federal reserve? Or another place?
I guess it’s nice they still think it’s 1940.
According to one response it’s to prevent a run on bank funds when other banks and regulatory functions are not operating. When it comes to banking, either everyone is in play or no one plays.
A lot of branch banks are open on Sat. now. Also some are open Sunday too. My credit union is open from 7 to 7 every day except major holidays. People can withdraw on the weekends with no problems.
I think it comes down to the fact that they simply don’t care to change the status quo.
But any transaction on Saturday, or after a certain cutoff on Friday, is pushed to occur on the next Monday. Or Tuesday if that’s a holiday. It doesn’t affect your withdrawals, but deposits, transfers, and such won’t be credited until Monday. Inertia, mostly.
I’m pretty sure thespecialised client-to-client money transfer networks such as Western Union and MoneyGram also operate on weekends. The big real-time settlement systems for interbank transfers that are run by central banks (such as Fedwire in the U.S. or Target2 in Europe) are indeed shut down over the weekend, but there are other ways for banks to clear payments.