Bank transfers will be blocked for 4 days at the end of December; it's best to complete your transactions before the 24th.

 

From December 25 to 28, 2025, it will be impossible to send or receive interbank transfers within the Eurozone. The European payment system will be completely shut down for four days, right in the middle of the holiday season. It's best to plan ahead to avoid any unpleasant surprises.

During the holidays, many people rely on bank transfers to pay for their expenses, send a little help to a loved one, or finalize an important payment. But this year, users will have to plan ahead: an exceptional outage of the European payment system will paralyze all interbank transactions for several days.

From Thursday, December 25th to Sunday, December 28th, 2025, SEPA transfers will be completely unavailable. The reason: the temporary closure of Target2, the settlement platform used by all banks in the Eurozone and managed by the European Central Bank (ECB). This interruption, which falls right in the middle of the holiday season, is likely to disrupt the daily lives of many customers.

A complete suspension of interbank transfers:
According to the schedule released by the French Banking Federation (FBF), Target2 will be offline on Thursday, December 25 and Friday, December 26, 2025, public holidays in several European countries. This shutdown is compounded by the weekend of December 27 and 28, a period during which interbank transfers are already not processed.

As a result, any transfer initiated to another bank after the end of the day on December 24th will only be processed from Monday, December 29th. This applies to both personal transfers and those related to the payment of salaries, rent, or pensions.

Salaries, rent, benefits… who will be affected?
Rest assured: businesses and social welfare organizations are accustomed to this annual shutdown and generally plan accordingly. In December, salaries are very often sent out as early as the 24th to avoid any delays related to the Target2 shutdown. Therefore, in principle, there should be no delays to worry about in that regard.

On the other hand, individuals will need to be extra vigilant with their own banking transactions: a transfer scheduled too late may only be processed several days later, which can cause problems for certain deadlines, particularly rent payments.

Instant transfers remain available

The good news, however, is that not all transfers are affected.  Internal transfers , meaning those made between two accounts at the same bank (such as a transfer from a savings account to a current account), will continue to function normally.  Instant transfers , if offered by your bank,  will also remain available .

To avoid any unpleasant surprises at the end of December, it's best  to plan your large transfers in advance  and check your bank's processing times. This planning can save you a lot of frustration during the holiday season.

Key takeaways:

• No interbank transfers will be possible between December 25 and 28, 2025 due to the closure of the European Target2 system.
• Any transfer sent after the afternoon of December 24 will not be processed until December 29, 2025.
• Wage payments should not be impacted, as companies generally anticipate the break by paying them from December 24th.
• Instant transfers and transfers within the same bank remain possible, as they do not use Target2.