Payment cut-off times

Overview

Santander Corporate and Commercial customers can make international payments in a range of currencies, using Telephone Banking or our online banking service, Santander Connect.

You don’t necessarily need to have an account in the payment currency, as Santander can convert your payment into the currency needed. Your customers can also pay you directly into any of your accounts, without first having to convert their payment into the currency of your account. In these cases, Santander will automatically convert the payment and credit your account.

For both types of automated currency conversions, we use exchange rates that are updated regularly throughout the day, so we apply the latest exchange rates to your payments. We also settle currency payments as quickly as our systems allow, based on the market timings in the currencies we are converting. This means that, depending on the currencies involved, the beneficiary’s bank (or your account) may be credited with the funds on the same day as the payment was made.

Use the calculator to work out cut-off times and settlement dates

Full details of the settlement dates and cut-off times are shown by clicking the link to the calculator below. Just enter the currency of the account you want to debit, and the currency you want to send, and the calculator will give you the cut-off time and settlement/value date.

Notes:

• For outgoing euro payments - irrespective of whether or not we convert the payment on your behalf - the cut-off time shown here (14:50) is correct for many European banks, but not all of them. This is because unlike the UK, not all European banks are members of all of the available clearing systems (in the UK all clearing banks are members of ‘BACS’, ‘CHAPS’ and ‘Faster Payments’). Specifically, if the beneficiary’s bank is not a participant in the ‘EURO1’ clearing system, and is only a participant in ‘STEP1’ clearing, the cut-off time will be 13:20. Santander is not in control of which clearing system the beneficiary bank uses.
• The time lag between receiving a payment instruction and the delivery of funds to the beneficiary’s bank will continue to shorten at Santander and across the industry. However, this increase in speed can also make it easier for fraudsters / scammers to steal from you. The most common scams involve hacking-into company or personal email accounts and passing instructions within your company for payments to be made, and/or beneficiary account details to be changed. Santander cannot recover funds after they have been delivered and, assuming Santander is acting on a valid instruction, we cannot be held responsible for losses you may suffer. It is therefore critical that you strengthen your email security and take sufficient measures to ensure your internal instructions are valid before you instruct us to make a payment.
• We may make further changes to cut-off times and/or may add further available currencies so if you save a copy of the calculator, it might not be accurate in the future.

Further support & FAQs

1. How can I send an international payment request?

Our Online Banking service, Santander Connect, is the most convenient way to send international payment requests. Santander Connect now offers Near-Real Time exchange rates for many currencies, allowing you to access up-to-the minute rates.

If you’d like to submit payments over the phone or by email via our Customer Service Centre, we’ll need to go through some additional security such as call backs or security codes. In addition, from January 2016, you will be charged a higher payment fee for any payments that are not submitted via Santander Connect. Payment instructions sent by fax or post are no longer accepted. For more details please call us on 0800 085 2090*.

2. What’s a currency cut-off time?

The currency cut-off time is the time we need to receive your payment by so we can process it on the same day. For example if the cut-off time is 14:00, you must submit your payment request on Santander Connect, and fully authorise it, before 14:00 – or it will show as having been received the next working day.

Payments submitted over the phone or by email will take an additional processing time of up to 24 hours.

3. What is a currency settlement time/date?

This refers to the date on which your payment will be delivered to the beneficiary’s bank. For example, if the settlement date is same day, and your payment is received before the cut-off time, then it will be with your beneficiary’s bank the same day. If the settlement will take 2 working days, and you submitted your payment on Monday before cut-off, they will get the payment on Wednesday. The day the payment is received is also known as the payment ‘value date.’

Please note, the beneficiary’s bank will normally credit the beneficiary’s account on the value date, but they don’t always do this. Unfortunately, this is beyond our control as the sending bank.

4. What happens if I’ve sent a payment after the currency cut off?

Your payment will be processed the next day.

If you have any more questions please call our Customer Service Centre team on 0800 085 2090. Our opening hours are Monday to Friday between 8:00 and 17:30 and Saturdays between 8:00 and 14:00.

For information on call charges please see call charge information.