Was ACH processing on Columbus Day 2026?

What this meant for payroll

Anything that would have settled on Monday, October 12, 2026 moved to the next banking day. Employees who had to be paid on or before that date needed the file to settle on Friday, October 9, 2026 instead.

That did not mean one submission date. Friday, October 9, 2026 was the last banking day before the closure, but the day you had to send the file depended on how fast your ACH settled.

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 did not mean ACH was processing

Branches, apps and phone lines keep their own hours, and those hours are not the Reserve Bank calendar. Nothing settled on Monday, October 12, 2026 whichever parts of your bank were open. An originating bank can accept a file on a closure day; it cannot settle one. Processing resumed on Tuesday, October 13, 2026.

Other names for this date

Some states, employers and calendars observed this date as Indigenous Peoples' Day. That name refers to the same day as Columbus Day, so the dates on this page applied whichever name your calendar or payroll system uses.

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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