If you’re due to send or receive money at the end of December in Germany, you may face delays because of the way the European Central Bank’s systems work and how the Christmas dates fall this year.
Every weekend, as well as on certain public holidays, the payment transfer systems operated by the European Central Bank are closed.
These public holidays include December 25th (Christmas Day) and December 26th (2. Weihnachtsfeiertag), which are both public holidays in Germany.
Because these two bank holidays are immediately followed by a weekend, there is a four‑day period in which normal interbank transfers are effectively paused.
This means that transfers initiated between different banks from December 25th to 28th will only be processed on the next banking day – Monday, December 29th. That could affect salaries, rents and other end‑of‑month payments if they are scheduled too late.
There are some exceptions to this - transfers between two people who both use the same bank do not need the ECB system, so will go through instantly.
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In addition, “instant payments” (Echtzeitüberweisungen) use a separate infrastructure and can be executed around the clock, including weekends and holidays.
German banks may charge fees for instant payments, but from late 2025 they are being pushed towards making them standard and low‑cost or free, so it is worth checking your bank’s conditions.
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