Fastest average SEPA transaction - which bank?

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tecate

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Which of our banks carries out the fastest sepa transaction processing? Is anyone aware of a timeline at which every day, each of the banks processes a batch of SEPA transfers?


I buy bitcoin from time to time. With that, I have to avoid holding currency (be that FIAT currency or Bitcoin) in my account/bitcoin 'wallet' through the Bitcoin exchange I use. They're unregulated and so holding funds there has to be cut down to the very minimum amount of time.

That means that I have to look at the exchange price and act immediately if the price is trading at - or heading in the direction of - a rate I'd like to buy into. If the SEPA takes too long, then an opportunity may be missed or may not be as lucrative by the time I have funds on account to buy bitcoin.

That's the backstory to my interest in figuring out the most efficient means of SEPA transfer from an Irish account. Anyone got the knowledge on this?
 
You need to consider both the outbound SEPA batch time and the inbound SEPA batch time.

Laster this year, SEPA Instant Payments will launch, which will allow instant SEPA transfers between banks that opt-in to the scheme for amounts under 15,000 EUR.
 
I assume by outbound an inbound, you're talking in terms of the time my bank executes a batch (outbound) and then the time at which the receiving bank processes them (inbound)?

If I can get the irish side (outbound) sorted first i.e. I choose the most efficient - or aim to have it in by a certain time of the day (once I know what time batches are processed), I can look to choosing an exchange that will process fastest on the inbound side (based on whomever they bank with).

Interesting re. SEPA Instant Payments. It's a shame this couldn't have been done years ago. You can't beat a bit of competition from the Fintech sector to spur on developments in traditional banking like this.

Is there any list of Banks that have signed up to the scheme/process? Have any of the irish banks declared their intentions in this regard?
 
There is no published list of times that the batches occur at. You could ask and see if the bank will give you the information.

No news yet on which banks will support SEPA Instant Payments.
 
thanks CiaranT. I checked with my bank (PTSB) and they said that there was no set time. I pressed them and said that there must be given that the transactions would be processed in batches - but again, they came back saying that there would be no set time. I'm doubting it could possibly work like this.


Otherwise, ref. SEPA Instant Payments, PTSB said that they have no plans at this stage to introduce this feature.
 
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Does not surprise me that PTSB will not release the information. A while ago I was told that PTSB do 3 SEPA and 3 SWIFT batches per day.
 
You could try one of the new banks, such as Starling or Mondo. I think they are connected to the Faster Payments scheme, and can operate in €. That would take the time delay risk out of your transactions. Faster payments are supposed to be received within 2 hours, but in practice it's usually minutes.
 
Faster Payment is a Sterling UK only scheme. The Euro SEPA equivalent is SEPA Instant Credit Transfer which will launch in November. The European Payments Council has a lot of info about it on their web site.
 
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