Why Do Banks Not Transfer Funds On Weekends Or Public Holidays

[crowsman53]

I have 1 buyer who has paid with Bank Transfer last Thursday evening, I also transfered momey from Paypal the same evening and none has showed in my Bank account. Now if that had been lodged the Tuesday it would have been in my account on Thursday as it normally is. So why not on Weekends or Public Holidays???

Paddy

[descendent80]

No wonder crypto is gaining popularity

[lyndal1838]

That is a question for the banks, not ebay.

[davewil1964]

Is it?

It is not really money, more a speculative 'investment'. Backed by nothing substantive except people's greed. Nobody ever seems to use it to buy tangible goods.

If real currencies fluctuated as much as the pretend ones, the pretend ones would be worthless as the global economy would shut down.

[Anonymous]

Because most banks hold the money in order to earn interest from it (yes, they are making interest on the trasnferers money which is why, unlike ING who use the SWIFT system, it's not immediate. It's disgraceful really.

[davewil1964]

So is answering a 7 year old post.

I'm fairly sure SWIFT (or OSKO) weren't around back then.

[love_of_cars]

The process is a little interesting if you can be bothered reading up:

https://gendal.me/2013/11/24/a-simple-explanation-of-how-money-moves-around-the-banking-system/

Basically, major banks host bank accounts for other major banks which hold a lot of money, and when someone withdrawels or deposits from/to someone with another bank, the funds are actually taken from/added to the other bank's account with the host bank.  So no actual money goes between banks for these peoples' transactions, they are just adjustments made to these big hosted accounts technically.

Sounds confusing but have a read to get your head around it.

As to why there's a delay, if I understand it correctly, it's because regular transfer notifications are sent in a batch and processed that way due to the costs involved if they were to be sent individually each time.  So we have to wait for the batch to be built up enough to be sent and be econimical to the bank.

Kind of like how all the Chinese sellers fill up a whole container of goods before sending it, so we end up with months of shipping time, and it is cheaper for everyone involved.