Money from ‘normal’ transfers made since December 24th will only reach the destination accounts on Monday, December 29th, due to the closure of the system that processes them during the Christmas period, according to Banco de Portugal.
Lusa questioned the Bank of Portugal about the process of ‘normal’ transfers (technically known as ‘credit’ transfers), given that information was circulating in the international press that transfers made at this time would be ‘blocked’, which translates into a delay of more than four days for operations carried out on December 24, for example.
Official source from Banco de Portugal explained that this time in processing transfers made since Christmas Eve, the 25th holiday and today is related to the normal closure of the ‘Target’ payment system during the Christmas period.
Since Target (the eurozone payment system) is closed on December 25th and 26th and these days, this year, are followed by the weekend of December 27th and 28th, ‘normal’ transfers will only be executed on Monday December 29th.
“Normal credit transfers initiated on December 24th are settled between banks on December 29th, and payment service providers must make the funds available to beneficiaries by that date,” said the banking regulator and supervisor.
Immediate transfers, added Banco de Portugal, continue “to be processed 24 hours a day, with funds being made available to beneficiaries within 10 seconds”.
In these transfers, there is “no dependence on Target’s operating days”.
Immediate transfers (in which the money is immediately available in the destination account) cost bank customers the same as ‘normal’ transfers (an obligation that has been in place since January 2025) but many customers, out of habit, still mainly use normal transfers (in which they have to wait one or several days for the money to become available).