'It Feels Backward'—Someone Asked What Many Are Thinking: 'Why Does Banking Basically Cease Over The Weekend' In 2025?
In a Reddit post that quickly gained thousands of upvotes, one user asked a question many Americans have probably wondered but never voiced: 'Why, in 2025, does banking basically cease over the weekend?'
'As the title suggests, it feels like in this day and age weekends should have no bearing on fluid movement of funds,' wrote the original poster.
Despite advances in technology, the U.S. banking system still relies heavily on the Automated Clearing House network, better known as ACH, a system developed in the 1970s that processes payments in batches. ACH doesn't operate on weekends or federal holidays.
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'The real reason your bank isn't open is because no banks are open,' wrote one Redditor. 'And the reason no banks are open is because the Federal Reserve... is closed on weekends.'
This pause has ripple effects. Even when you initiate a transfer on a Saturday, it often stays in 'pending' status until Monday. That frustrates users like the original poster who shared: 'I'll pay my credit card electronically on Saturday and it pends the entire weekend until Monday when it 'posts' and then the money doesn't actually disappear from my bank account until TUESDAY.'
Meanwhile, people outside the U.S. are shocked this is even a problem.
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'In the Netherlands all transactions are processed 24/7, also between banks,' one commenter noted. Others chimed in from Australia, the U.K., Brazil, Mexico and New Zealand, all describing systems where bank transfers are instant and available every day of the week.
One Australian added, 'Most transfers are now instant, literally take seconds, 24/7.'
A few U.S.-based commenters mentioned FedNow, a new payment service launched by the Federal Reserve in 2023 that allows real-time payments. However, its adoption has been slow. 'FedNow is a new system that is 24/7/365, but many banks just aren't using it yet,' said one person.
Some insiders say delays aren't about tech limitations but business interests. 'The bank holds the money for a few days, earning interest doing bank stuff, and then gives my landlord $3,000 on Tuesday,' one person wrote. 'Multiply that by trillions of transactions and it's worth the banks lobbying to keep the Fed shut at the weekends.'Others pointed out that fraud prevention is often used as justification for these delays. But not everyone buys that argument. 'You don't need human review of the vast majority of transactions and there's no need to hold up all transactions for the tiny fraction that do,' one user argued.
From a global perspective, the U.S. banking system comes off as outdated. 'Cheques don't really exist in the U.K. or Europe anymore,' said one Redditor. 'The U.S. is a dinosaur in this area.'
Whether due to inertia, lobbying, or outdated infrastructure, U.S. banks remain behind many of their global peers when it comes to the basic movement of money.
As one Redditor put it: 'So basically, we're closed on Saturday because that guy is closed on Saturday and he is closed on Saturday because that other guy is closed on Saturday and that other guy is closed on Saturday because it is Saturday.'
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This article 'It Feels Backward'—Someone Asked What Many Are Thinking: 'Why Does Banking Basically Cease Over The Weekend' In 2025? originally appeared on Benzinga.com
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