Salary payments may be interrupted over the Easter weekend

For bank transfers, Easter is the longest weekend of the year: they will not be processed for four days, from Thursday 28 March 6pm to Tuesday 2 April 2:30am every year since 2002. But the 2024 calendar is special, with the Easter weekend falling at the end of the month, the pay period.

Those whose employers do not expect this coincidence of the calendar will have their paycheck arrive later than usual, Tuesday 2 April.

To understand, you need to know that the system used by European banks to transfer money between them in real time, “Target 2”, does not work at night, on Saturdays, Sundays and on six public holidays a year (the same in all countries, even though these days are public everywhere No Holidays: New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Before Easter, Easter Monday, 1^er May, Christmas and December 26. This is a closed range “Highly Automated System Maintenance Windows”suggests Claudine Hermann, director of innovation and financial market infrastructure at the Banque de France.

The latter, like the French Banking Federation (FBF), however, seek reassurance: the target schedule is known in advance, the scenario has already occurred and the banks are supposed to have relayed the information to employers, to encourage them. Pay salary in advance. “Target Calendar is available to our business customers from March 20. And we warned them with a banner on our portal on March 25”BNP cites Paribas as an example.

Government employees paid on March 28

“The Banque de France – the state banker – has informed the General Directorate of Public Finance, which pays the salaries of civil servants, so the latter will not be paid after Thursday March 28.” Emphasis on part of it^me Harman.

FBF reminds that instant transfer, twenty-four hours a day in ten seconds, seven days a week “Be operational during periods when settlement systems are closed”. This service, which is still often paid but which should become free in 2025, is therefore an option for companies who have forgotten to look at the calendar and for individuals who will need to transfer money this weekend.

Clarification from the Banque de France: Internal transfers do not pass through Target 2. Those who have the same bank as their employer, and if the latter makes their transfer on the 29th, can be credited on the same day, Good Friday not being a public holiday in France and in Alsace-Moselle. Be aware, however, that many banks stop processing these transactions, internal transactions, on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.

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