A cut-off time is the latest point in a business day at which a bank or payment system will accept a payment instruction for processing that day. An instruction that arrives after it is treated as received on the next business day, which pushes back the date on which the payee gets the money. Cut-offs exist because many systems close each day to reconcile accounts, settle net positions and prepare for the next day.
Cut-offs come in two layers. A payment system sets its own deadlines, and each bank sets an earlier internal cut-off for its customers so that it has time to check, screen and send the payment. A cut-off is closely linked to, but different from, the value date, which is the day funds become available, and from a system's closing time, after which nothing settles at all.
Cut-off time in plain terms
Think of the last collection time printed on a post box. A letter dropped in before it leaves today; a letter dropped in a minute later sits in the box overnight and goes tomorrow. Nothing is wrong with the late letter, it simply misses the day's run.
Bank payments behave the same way. Each day the bank and the payment system gather up the instructions they have received, send them, and balance their books before closing. If an instruction arrives after the deadline, it waits for the next working day. Weekends and public holidays stretch the wait further, which is why a transfer sent late on a Friday afternoon may not arrive until Monday or Tuesday.
Why payment systems have cut-off times
Large-value systems settle in central bank money across accounts that the central bank balances at the end of each day. Banks need a fixed point by which they know their positions, so they can repay any intraday credit, lend or borrow surplus funds overnight, and complete their liquidity management. Batch systems such as the Automated Clearing House (ACH) also need deadlines for each processing window. Banks add their own margin before the scheme deadline because outgoing payments must pass sanctions screening, fraud checks and, for large amounts, manual approval, and a payment flagged for review late in the day can easily miss the system's close.
The rules recognise this. In the United States, Article 4A of the Uniform Commercial Code allows a receiving bank to fix a cut-off time near the end of its funds-transfer business day. In the European Union, the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) lets a payment service provider set a cut-off near the end of the business day, after which an order is deemed received the next business day.
Cut-off times in major systems
Scheme deadlines vary by system and change over time. The figures below are the published times as of November 2026; banks' own customer deadlines are usually earlier.
| System | Customer payments | Bank-to-bank payments |
|---|---|---|
| Fedwire Funds Service (US) | 6:45 p.m. ET | 7:00 p.m. ET (close) |
| CHAPS (UK) | 17:40 UK time | 18:00 UK time |
| T2 (euro area) | 17:00 CET | 18:00 CET |
Fedwire opens at 9:00 p.m. ET on the previous calendar day, giving a 22-hour operating day; its customer deadline moved from 6:00 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. in March 2021, when a third Same Day ACH window was added with a 4:45 p.m. ET submission deadline. CHAPS has run until 18:00 since June 2016, when the Bank of England extended its settlement day. Instant systems such as TIPS and SEPA Instant Credit Transfer operate around the clock, so for those payments there is no daily cut-off.
Foreign exchange cut-offs
A currency trade settles in two payment systems, one for each currency, and both must be open on the value date. A standard spot trade settles two business days after the trade date, which gives back offices time to confirm and fund both legs. Banks therefore publish dealing cut-offs per currency pair, and currencies whose home systems close early in the global day, such as the Japanese yen, have the earliest ones.
Time zones create Herstatt risk, where one leg is paid before the other can be received. Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS) reduces it by settling both legs together during a short daily window when the participating central bank systems are open at the same time; trades must be submitted before CLS's own deadlines to settle that day.
Moving towards longer hours
Pressure for longer operating days comes from instant payments, global trading and tokenised assets. In October 2025 the Federal Reserve Board said Fedwire and the National Settlement Service would expand to six days a week, Sunday to Friday including weekday holidays, no earlier than 2028, with the same daily hours. The Bank of England has consulted on extending the RTGS and CHAPS settlement day further. Longer hours shift rather than remove cut-offs: as long as systems close at all, a payment instruction still has to arrive before the deadline to be settled with same-day payment finality, and each settlement bank will still set its own earlier limit for customers.