Paragraph 675s BGB: “Execution period for payment transactions”
Generally applies to all banks in European SEPA-room that electronic transfers – i.e. domestic and international transfers as well as direct debits – in the euro currency must be carried out within one bank working day.
In addition, some other regulations apply to German banks, which are set out in paragraph 675s BGB “Execution period for payment transactions”. First of all, the following applies: “The payer’s payment service provider is obliged to ensure that the payment amount is received by the payee’s payment service provider at the latest by the end of the business day following the time the payment order was received.” In concrete terms, this means that an electronic transfer, i.e. a transfer made in online banking or at the counter, must not take longer than one day. Once the transfer has arrived, the recipient’s payment service provider must always and immediately credit the corresponding amount to the recipient.
Paragraph 675s BGB also regulates five special cases:
– If it is not an electronic transfer but a paper transfer, the process may take an additional day.
– If an electronic transfer is a transaction to another EU country, Liechtenstein, Iceland, Norway, Monaco or Switzerland, it may take a maximum of four days.
– If such a transaction in another EU country or one of the other countries is ordered in paper form, the execution may take another day longer, i.e. a total of five days.
– There is no maximum processing time for transfer orders to non-EU countries or to one of the countries mentioned above.
business days and the cut-off time for transfers
Attention: We are talking about the business days of the banks – bank employees do not work on weekends and the eleven national holidays. This means that a transfer made on a Friday will not be processed until the following Monday at the earliest. On national holidays, however, the branches remain closed, but transfers are processed.
In addition, most banks have an acceptance deadline for transfers, as the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) explains. This is a time (usually between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.) at which the bank working day for processing transfers ends, so to speak: Orders received after this time are treated as if they had only been received the following day. Most institutes specify the exact acceptance deadline in their general terms and conditions or the “special conditions for payment transactions”. An electronic domestic transfer, which is not received by a bank until 6 p.m. on a Monday with an acceptance deadline of 5 p.m., legally only has to be carried out by the bank on the following Wednesday.
There is one exception here: Instant payments are also processed at night, at weekends and on national holidays. The so-called lightning or real-time transfers cannot be made at every institute and also exclusively or not always online. In addition, the financial institution often charges fees for such transfers, which are processed within a few hours or even seconds. There is also a maximum amount of 15,000 euros for real-time transfers.
What happens if the financial institution does not complete the transaction on time?
It can also happen that a financial institution does not execute an order on time. This is particularly annoying if a payment deadline could not be met as a result. In the event of consequential damage, customers can claim damages – payment service providers can limit this to 12,500 euros in their general terms and conditions. Of course, such a limitation does not apply if the delayed execution of the order was caused intentionally or negligently by the bank, explains BaFin.
Olga Rogler / Editor finanzen.net
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