What Time Does the Federal Reserve Open for Wire Transfers?

The Federal Reserve’s Fedwire Funds Service opens at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time the evening before each business day and closes at 7:00 p.m. ET the following evening, giving a 22-hour window Monday through Friday. If you are wondering what time the Federal Reserve opens for wire transfers on a given business day, the practical answer for customer payments is earlier still: wires sent on behalf of a bank customer must be initiated by 6:45 p.m. ET, and your own bank almost certainly has a cutoff hours before that.¹

Fedwire’s Daily Schedule

Each Fedwire business day runs from 9:00 p.m. ET the prior calendar evening to 7:00 p.m. ET. Monday’s cycle, for example, opens at 9:00 p.m. Sunday. That 22-hour window covers every U.S. time zone and stretches deep into the overnight hours for banks that need it.¹

The 7:00 p.m. close is not the deadline most people should plan around. Transfers sent for the benefit of a third party, which covers essentially all consumer and business wires, have to be initiated by 6:45 p.m. ET. The final 15 minutes of the day are reserved for bank-to-bank settlement activity. Any customer wire that misses 6:45 p.m. sits until the next business cycle opens.¹

These operating hours and the finality of completed transfers are set under Regulation J, 12 CFR Part 210, Subpart B, which gives the Federal Reserve Banks authority to establish cutoff times.² Once a wire settles, it is final and irrevocable.

Your Bank’s Cutoff Is Earlier

Fedwire may accept customer wires until 6:45 p.m. ET, but no retail bank will let you send that late. Banks need time to verify balances, run fraud and compliance checks, and format the payment instructions before handing them off to the Federal Reserve. Most domestic wire cutoffs at commercial banks and credit unions fall between 2:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. local time. The exact hour depends on the institution and sometimes on how you submit the request, whether online, in a branch, or by phone.

Miss your bank’s cutoff by a few minutes and the wire waits for the next business day, no matter how much of the Fedwire window is left. The specific deadline appears in your bank’s terms of service or wire fee schedule. Submitting first thing in the morning is the safest way to guarantee same-day settlement.

International wires cut off even earlier, often one to two hours before the domestic deadline, because they travel through additional networks and intermediary banks, and they can take one to five business days to arrive rather than settling the same day.

Days the Fed Is Closed

Fedwire does not run on weekends or on the 11 holidays the Federal Reserve Banks observe. For 2026, those dates are:³

New Year’s Day, January 1
Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 19
Washington’s Birthday (Presidents Day), February 16
Memorial Day, May 25
Juneteenth National Independence Day, June 19
Independence Day, July 4
Labor Day, September 7
Columbus Day, October 12
Veterans Day, November 11
Thanksgiving Day, November 26
Christmas Day, December 25

When a holiday falls on a Sunday, Federal Reserve offices close the following Monday.³ A long weekend with a Monday holiday means no Fedwire settlement from Friday’s 7:00 p.m. close until Sunday at 9:00 p.m., when Tuesday’s business day begins.

What Happens If You Submit After Hours

Wire requests that come in after your bank’s cutoff, on weekends, or during a holiday do not vanish. Your bank holds the instructions in its own system and queues them for the next Fedwire cycle. You may see the funds deducted from your available balance right away, but the money has not moved. The recipient will not receive credit until the Fed reopens and your bank releases the payment for settlement.

Queued transfers process in the order received once the cycle opens. A wire submitted Saturday afternoon, for example, would not begin processing until Sunday at 9:00 p.m. ET (the start of Monday’s business day), with the recipient’s bank typically posting funds Monday morning.

FedNow as an After-Hours Option

If you need to move money when Fedwire is closed, the Federal Reserve’s FedNow Service runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, including weekends and every holiday. Transfers settle in seconds.⁴

The catch is size and reach. The FedNow network cap is $10 million per transfer, and individual banks can set lower limits.⁵ Not every bank participates, so confirm that both the sending and receiving institutions are on the FedNow network before counting on it for a time-sensitive payment.

A Six-Day Schedule Is Coming

The Federal Reserve has announced plans to expand Fedwire from five days a week to six, running Sunday through Friday and staying open on weekday holidays. The 22-hour daily window (9:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. ET) would not change, but the system would gain Sunday’s business day and stop closing for holidays that fall on a weekday. Under the new schedule, the system would close Friday at 7:00 p.m. ET and reopen Saturday at 9:00 p.m. ET for Sunday’s business day, leaving a 26-hour weekly maintenance window.⁶⁷

Implementation is targeted for 2028 or 2029, depending on the readiness of participating banks and the Reserve Banks. The Federal Reserve has said it will consider a further move to 22 hours a day, 7 days a week no sooner than two years after six-day operations launch.⁶

1
Federal Reserve Board. Fedwire Funds Services – Data and Additional Information
2
eCFR. 12 CFR Part 210 Subpart B – Funds Transfers Through the Fedwire Funds Service
3
Federal Reserve Board. Holidays Observed – K.8
4
Federal Reserve Board. FedNow Service
5
FedNow Instant Payments. FedNow Service Increases Network Transaction Limit to $10 Million
6
Federal Reserve Board. Expansion of Fedwire Funds Service and National Settlement Service Operating Hours
7
Federal Register. Federal Reserve Action To Expand Fedwire Funds Service and National Settlement Service Operating Hours