Payment Order

A payment order is an instruction from a payer, or a payee, to their payment service provider requesting that a payment be executed. The term has defined legal meanings. Under the EU's Second Payment Services Directive and the UK's Payment Services Regulations, the time a payment order is received starts the clock on maximum execution times, orders received after a provider's cut-off are treated as received on the next business day, and once received a payment order generally cannot be revoked, except for future-dated orders before an agreed deadline. In the United States, Article 4A of the Uniform Commercial Code governs funds transfers such as wires and defines a payment order as an instruction by a sender to a receiving bank to pay a fixed amount to a beneficiary, and sets rules on acceptance and liability. A payment order is the legal form of a payment instruction; its handling is covered under payment execution and payment cancellation.