How long does an EFT take in Canada?

What EFT Rails does

When you create an electronic funds transfer (EFT) payment with EFT Rails, you can choose the banking day the money is to land or use the earliest available day. The payment carries an expected settlement date from creation, calculated from the payment method's cutoff, its lead time and the banking calendar. See the API reference for payment documentation.

The timing rules below explain how that date becomes money in the payee's account. For a wider explanation of the payment method, see EFT payments in Canada.

Send before your bank's EFT cutoff

Use your bank's cutoff to plan when you send the file. Banks exchange EFT files on business days at 09:30, 16:30 and 21:00 Eastern Time. The first exchange accepts files received from 21:00:01 on the previous evening, so a file received after 21:00 goes into the next business day's 09:30 exchange.¹

A file belongs to the exchange during which the receiving bank gets it, even when transmission began earlier. The sending bank must allow enough time for the file to arrive, which is why its client cutoff comes before the exchange.² Use your bank's cutoff when planning the file, then use the exchange time to work out availability. See EFT cutoff times for scheduling the handoff.

When the payee has a credit

The sender sets the day the credit is to reach the payee. That date is the Due Date. For a credit, it is the date the money is to be credited to the payee's account. For a debit, it is the date the money is to leave the payor's account.³

The destination branch determines how far ahead the credit must be exchanged. A credit going to a branch that credits the same day is exchanged on the Due Date or, when available for exchange then, the business day before. A credit going to a branch that needs one business day is exchanged one business day before the Due Date, and a branch that needs two business days requires exchange two business days before. A bank's own branches credit the same day.⁴

At a branch that credits the same day, the payee's bank must make the money available within 2 hours of the exchange that brought it. At a branch that needs one or two business days, availability is required by the opening of business on the Due Date. The same opening-of-business deadline applies when the credit arrives the business day before its Due Date. A credit to an account other than a chequing account may be handled as a credit to a branch that needs one business day.⁵

For a credit with today's Due Date going to a branch that credits the same day:

A credit that reaches the payee's bank one business day before its Due Date must be available when business opens on the Due Date.

When a debit moves

The sender's bank cannot deliver a debit to your customer's bank before its Due Date.⁶

If your customer's bank decides not to honour the debit, it must return it no later than the next business day after that decision.⁷ See EFT returns and reconciliation.

Settlement

The payee can have a credit before the banks settle it. Settlement between the banks occurs on the business day after the Due Date. For an item delivered after its Due Date, settlement occurs on the business day after its exchange.⁸

Keep track of when the recipient can use the money and when the banks settle. See EFT reconciliation for keeping those dates with the payment.

Weekends and holidays

EFT exchanges pause on weekends and holidays because they take place on business days only.¹ A payment dated on a day that is not a business day is treated as dated the next business day.⁹

The Real-Time Rail is live and operates on every calendar day, including weekends and holidays. Your bank may not be connected to it yet.¹⁰ Read about the Real-Time Rail in Canada.

Plan payroll or a loan advance

For payroll due on a Friday that is a business day, consider credits going to branches that need no more than one business day of lead time. If the receiving banks get those credits in the 16:30 or 21:00 exchange on the preceding business day, employees must have the money by the opening of business on Friday.¹¹ The banks settle on the following business day.⁸

A lender can plan a loan advance for a Monday that is a business day. For a credit with Monday's Due Date going to a branch that credits the same day, the lender must meet the sending bank's cutoff and the receiving bank must get the credit by the 16:30 Eastern Time exchange for the borrower to have the money by 18:30 Eastern Time.¹² The banks settle on the following business day.⁸ See same-day EFT for planning a payment on its Due Date.