Bank transfers blocked at all banks for several days

Customers will have to think ahead if they want to send money in a few days.

This is a time best marked in your calendar. In a few days, most bank transfers will be blocked, for a period of four days. If you are waiting for a payment or if you need to send money, it is better to anticipate and do it in advance or warn that the amount will arrive with a slight delay. Nobody, or almost no one, will be able to escape this blockage.

This is not a new thing, far from it, but the general public is often unaware of it: it is not always possible for a transfer to reach its recipient within the usual 24 hours. Each year, the system which manages money transfers is closed for a few days, always on the same dates. And all countries with the Euro are concerned since it is a system common to the 20 states of the common currency.

If in principle this only happens on one day from time to time -New Year's Day, Labor Day and Christmas-, the Easter period is the main one affected, where the inability to make transfers is the longest . This year, from Friday March 29 to Monday April 1, 2024 inclusive, no transfers between two banks can be made. The money will only arrive in the accounts from Tuesday 2 April. More precisely, these are all transfers made from Thursday March 28 after 4:30 p.m. which will not arrive until the following week, details the Banque de France.

This concerns you if you make a transfer to an establishment other than yours, for example from your BNP account to a CIC, Banque Populaire, Société Générale or other account. On the other hand, any transfer between two accounts of the same bank can be received within the usual time limits. Thus, replenishing your current account thanks to a payment from your livret A will be entirely possible, just like paying money to a person from the same banking network.

If you are really pressed for time, you can always use instant transfers. These will operate throughout the period, even on Sunday. Paid in some establishments, free in others, they allow you to bypass the traditional system and have the money arrive within the day, as long as the account is located in a Euro zone country. According to the latest data from INSEE (which dates from 2018), at least 9 million transfers are made every day in France.