Find out more about the processing times for a bank transaction

Why is there a delay between sending a bank transfer and receiving the payment?

First of all, we need to understand what a financial transaction involves in order to understand why it cannot be instantaneous.

A financial transaction is, first and foremost, an exchange of information between two institutions holding funds on behalf of third parties in order to carry out a transfer. It is a process that must be reliable, unique, secure and comprehensive. The consequences of an error can be particularly serious.

What are the different types of bank transfer and the associated processing times?

Financial institutions generally classify transactions into four main types, each of which is further divided into two categories.

We therefore have:

• Account-to-account transfers: These are transfers between two accounts held by the same account holder at the same bank. These transfers are instantaneous, regardless of the value date, provided that the account being debited has sufficient funds.
  
• Domestic transfers: these are transfers between two accounts in the same country and in the same currency, held at two different banks. These transfers take between 1 and 3 working days. In most cases, the funds are credited to the recipient’s account the morning after the transfer is initiated.
  Domestic transfers between two accounts held at the same bank are usually completed within a few minutes.
  
• SEPA transfers: these are European payments denominated in euros, initiated by a bank authorised to carry out this type of transaction and received by a bank that accepts SEPA (essentially all European banks). The processing time is the same as for a domestic transfer. It should not take more than three working days.
  
• International bank transfers: in this case, the transfer is made between two banks located in different countries that have not signed any specific agreement, and the currencies involved may not necessarily be the same. This can take between 1 and 5 working days.

These payments include:

• Instant or Express transfers: often charged by the bank when made in the afternoon, the transfer is processed immediately. Please note that an express transfer in euros falls outside the scope of the SEPA agreement.
  One of the benefits of using instant transfers is that they allow transactions to be completed on the same working day for domestic transfers.
  
• Scheduled transfers: this is the most common use of a transfer; the instruction is carried out on a specific date, often the day after the request is made, but this can be set for a date of the sender’s choosing.

My transaction isn’t going through on time. Why is that?

Assuming that your account has sufficient funds and that the payment has been successfully debited, there are many reasons why the funds might not have been credited yet. We will list the most common reasons here, but this list is by no means exhaustive.

The most common error concerns your payee’s bank details. This may relate to your payee’s name, address or IBAN. If there is no perfect match between these three details, the receiving bank is entitled to reject the funds. If the funds are rejected, the payment will be returned within 2–3 working days.

Please note that charges may apply if funds are returned, particularly in the case of international transfers.

The processing time may also be affected by financial institutions’ internal checks. During a financial transaction, regardless of the amount, financial institutions may carry out a number of checks. Until these checks have been approved, the transaction remains pending.

The main reasons for these checks are: the unusual amount involved in the transaction, the new source of the funds, the country of origin, the name of the beneficiary, or the country of destination.

If there is a hold on the transaction, banks are entitled to request clarification and further information. This may take up to a week.

Finally, the involvement of an intermediary bank can affect the processing time of your transaction. This is particularly the case for payments denominated in US dollars. In such cases, a bank acts as an intermediary between the sender’s bank and the final recipient. This is unavoidable, but some banks are slower than others in processing these transactions, which can delay your transactions by several days.

What can be done to minimise the risk of delays?

Sharing information with the institutions involved in the transaction is key to keeping the processing time to a minimum. When you carry out a financial transaction that falls outside the usual scope, your bank is required to carry out checks.

If your advisor has been notified of the transaction and has all the information required to approve it, they will process it as soon as it is received. Among other things, they will be able to ask you any necessary questions before the transaction goes ahead, thereby avoiding any hold-ups by addressing potential issues one by one. For example, they can inform their colleagues if they are absent or answer questions from the counterparty without having to ask you.

If he does not have the information to hand, he should get in touch with you, which he will do as soon as he has a moment. This could be within five minutes or within two days.

To minimise delays, we therefore recommend that you send a message with supporting documentation or an explanation to your bank advisor as soon as you carry out or anticipate a transaction that falls outside your usual banking activities (first Swiss salary, property transaction, management of your 2nd pillar pension, etc.).

So what impact does b-sharpe have on transaction times?

b-sharpe is a foreign exchange broker and, as such, a financial intermediary. We are therefore subject to the same regulations as banking institutions.

We do our utmost to minimise the processing time for your transaction. Transactions processed before midday are settled on the same day for all transactions in CHF and EUR. We process your transactions within a maximum of 12 working hours from the time we receive your funds to the time we issue the payment of the equivalent amount.  

However, we are still subject to bank processing times, so the time taken may vary between 1 and 3 days, even though the payment is processed within minutes of receiving your funds.

Furthermore, as an intermediary, we are entitled to ask you for further information regarding the financial background of your transactions. If we do not receive a response from you, the transaction will be put on hold on our end.

Using b-sharpe therefore has very little impact on the processing time of a standard banking transaction, whilst allowing you to benefit from particularly favourable exchange rates.

Generally, our customers are credited within 24 hours of their transaction being processed.