Is ACH processing on Christmas Day 2026?

What this means for payroll

Anything that would have settled on Friday, December 25, 2026 moves to the next banking day. If employees must be paid on or before that date, the file needs to settle on Thursday, December 24, 2026 instead.

That does not mean one submission date. Thursday, December 24, 2026 is the last banking day before the closure, but the day you must send the file depends on how fast your ACH settles.

Your bank may set an earlier cutoff than the Federal Reserve's, so treat these as the outside limit rather than a target.

An open bank does not mean ACH is processing

Branches, apps and phone lines keep their own hours, and those hours are not the Reserve Bank calendar. Nothing settles on Friday, December 25, 2026 whichever parts of your bank are open. An originating bank can accept a file on a closure day; it cannot settle one. Processing resumes on Monday, December 28, 2026.

Use the payroll cutoff calculator to get your exact submission date, or the settlement calculator to check a specific file.

Every 2026 closure

See the full 2026 ACH holiday schedule, or check whether the Fed is open today.

The closures either side of this one

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