No bank transfers for four days due to France’s mixed holiday set-up

Free bank transfers will not be possible in France from today (April 15) until Tuesday (April 19) due to a temporary pause of Sepa credit transfers caused by public holidays, one of which is only recognised in a small part of France.

The payment system Target 2, managed by the European Central Bank through which Sepa credit transfers are made, is usually closed on weekends but will also be closed this Friday and on Monday.

This is due to the Easter public holiday on Monday (April 18), recognised in the whole of France, and also Good Friday (April 15), which is a public holiday only in the three French departments of Moselle, Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin.

Due to local laws whose origins date to the annexation of Alsace and the current Moselle (as Alsace-Lorraine was then called) by the German Empire, at the end of the 1870 war, these three departments have two extra public holiday days per year. The second is Saint-Etienne's Day which falls on December 26 and Sepa credit transfers will also be suspended on that day.

Sepa stands for the Single Euro Payments Area.

Paid instant transfers still possible

It will still be possible to make an instant (instantané) transfer, as these go through an extension of the Target 2 system.

However there is a charge for this using method in most cases.

It will also still be possible to make transfers between two accounts from the same bank.

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