Every date on USBankingHolidays.com comes from the Federal Reserve’s own published schedule or, for years it has not published yet, from federal law and the Federal Reserve’s weekend rules. This page explains where each date comes from, how we check it, and how you can tell a confirmed date from a calculated one.
Where our dates come from
We use primary sources only. A date or rule is taken from the organization that sets it, not from another calendar site.
- Federal Reserve holidays: the holiday schedule of the Federal Reserve Board. It lists the holidays observed by the Federal Reserve System for several years ahead, with footnotes for holidays that fall on a weekend.
- Payment services: the holiday schedules of Federal Reserve Financial Services, which operates FedACH and Fedwire. We use it as a second check of the dates and as the source for FedACH holiday processing times.
- Federal government observances: the federal holidays page of the Office of Personnel Management. We use it to show where government offices follow a different day than the Federal Reserve.
- The law itself: the federal holidays are set in 5 U.S.C. 6103. We use the law to calculate years the Federal Reserve has not published yet.
- Payments and markets: the Nacha Operating Rules for ACH, Fedwire Funds Service operating hours for wire cut-offs, and the NYSE Group’s own announcements for stock market closures. These appear only where a page explains how a holiday affects a payment or the markets.
Confirmed and calculated dates
A confirmed date appears in the Federal Reserve Board’s published schedule. Our year pages show the source and the date we last checked it below the calendar.
A calculated date belongs to a year the Federal Reserve has not published yet. We calculate it from the rules in federal law, such as “the third Monday in January” for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and apply the Federal Reserve’s weekend rules. The calendar for that year says so in place of a verification date. When the Federal Reserve publishes that year, we replace the calculation with the published dates.
The weekend rules are where most calendars go wrong, so we keep them separate:
- When a holiday falls on a Saturday, the Federal Reserve Banks stay open on the Friday before. Only the Board of Governors closes. Federal government offices do close on that Friday.
- When a holiday falls on a Sunday, the Federal Reserve and federal offices close on the Monday after.
How we check the dates
Each year’s published schedule is stored as data, together with its source and the date we checked it. Before an update of the site’s holiday engine goes live, an automated test compares every published date with the statutory rules. A mismatch has to be resolved by hand first.
We check the full schedule every November for the coming year and review each holiday again two weeks before it. When the Federal Reserve changes its schedule, we update the data and the verification date. For example, the Board revised a footnote on July 8, 2026 to list December 31, 2027 as its closure for New Year’s Day 2028.
How we count business days
A business day on this site is a Monday to Friday on which the Federal Reserve Banks are open. That is the day ACH payments and Fedwire transfers can settle. A day on which only the Board of Governors is closed still counts as a business day.
Our business days calculator does not count the start date. It skips weekends and every Federal Reserve closure in between. Federal government workdays, contracts and loan agreements can use a different definition, so the result can differ from theirs.
Today’s status and time zone
“Open” or “closed” for today is based on Eastern Time, where the Federal Reserve’s payment schedules are set. The status switches at midnight Eastern Time, so it can show the next day’s status while it is still the evening before in the Central, Mountain or Pacific time zones.
What we do not publish
We do not publish opening hours of individual banks or branches. Each bank sets its own holiday hours, and they can differ between branches. We also do not publish bank-specific deadlines for transfers or payroll. Where a page describes a cut-off time, it is the Federal Reserve’s own time, and your bank’s own deadline can be earlier.
Who maintains this site
USBankingHolidays.com is written and maintained by the US Banking Holidays Editorial Team and operated by KS Logistics & Marketing, based in the Netherlands. It is an independent information service. It is not affiliated with the Federal Reserve, any government agency or any commercial bank, and it does not give financial advice. Confirm important dates with your bank before you rely on them. If you spot an error, please tell us through our contact page or at .