Salary payments for the month of March “will therefore have to be anticipated by companies” because bank transfers will be suspended for four days from Thursday evening for the Easter weekend, the Bank of France said on Tuesday.
Money flows between euro area banks pass through the Target 2 system, open every day except weekends and January 1, Good Friday, Easter Monday, May 1 and 25 and 26 December.
It will therefore be closed for more than 100 hours between Thursday March 28 at 6 p.m. and Tuesday April 2 at 2:30 a.m., specifies the Banque de France.
Calendars “known well in advance”
If this scenario has taken place every year for more than 20 years, the specificity of 2024 lies in the date of Good Friday and Easter Monday: March 29 and April 1, at a time when salaries are sent to employees.
These closure schedules “are known well in advance”, underlines the French Banking Federation (FBF).
They are “also relayed by banks to their corporate clients.
We can therefore think that companies have taken the necessary anticipation measures for the transfer orders planned during this closure period, in particular salaries, so that the latter are processed taking into account this extended closure period, as every year. », Adds the professional federation.
Instant transfer services offered by banks “remain operational during periods when settlement systems are closed,” concludes the FBF.