A EUROPEAN BANK holiday has caught some businesses off guard and left hundreds without wages today.
Dubbed a ‘SEPA holiday’, interbank transactions can not take place today in all but four EU countries.
Both the European Central Bank and the European Clearing House are closed, meaning that transactions can not take place between banks in Ireland.
The payments freeze applies to both credit transfers and direct debits, meaning that customers won’t miss paying vital bills.
Payments due to the enter accounts today will instead appear tomorrow.
How did this happen?
The Irish Payment Services Organisation (IPSO) ran an information campaign last week in an attempt to inform both employers and bank customers of the impending delay in payments.
Banks were told by IPSO to pass on the message to employers to either pay their employees a day early to avoid the delay, or to let them know that the payments will be delayed.
The same advice was supplied to business bodies such as Ibec and Chambers Ireland.
IPSO added that because this delay affects all payments, customers will not miss essential payments such as electricity or heating bills.
“The delay relates to both credit transfers (wages, salaries etc.) and direct debits (utility bill, mortgage repayments etc.) and as such customers will not miss payments.”
The organisation added that retail banks were to add a clear message to their websites to inform customers.
However, this is not visible if customers go directly to the AIB Internet Banking or Banking 365 homepages.
A number of customers have contacted their bank on Twitter, noting that they have not been paid.
Have you been affected by this? Let us know on tips@thejournal.ie
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say