The time of day after which work is carried to the next business day.
A cut-off is a time of day after which an instruction is treated as belonging to the next business day. Payment systems have them, clearing houses have them, and so do payroll bureaux and settlement agents.
The trap is that a cut-off is a TIME and every other deadline discussed here is a DATE. A payment made on the deadline but after the cut-off has met the date and missed the obligation, and the confirmation will say it was accepted.
Cut-offs also differ per currency and per channel within the same institution, and are usually stated in the institution's local time — so a cross-border instruction has to clear a cut-off in a time zone that is not the sender's.
A deadline is a date. A cut-off is a time of day, and meeting the date after the cut-off still misses.
The cut-off is the condition; same-day value is the result of meeting it.
See also deadline · same day value · value date · local time · net settlement
We hold no settlement or clearing calendars. This entry defines the term and demonstrates nothing, because a near-miss borrowed from exchange closures would imply coverage that does not exist. See what we hold.