A bank quoting one to five working days is not being evasive, it is describing a process whose length genuinely depends on things it cannot see when you press send. Four factors account for almost all of the variation, and knowing which one is likely to bite in your case gets you much closer to a real answer than any published range.
The cut-off decides your starting day
Every bank has a daily cut-off after which a payment is dated the next working day. Miss it on a Friday afternoon and a transfer that would have taken two days now takes four, before anything has gone wrong at all. Cut-offs differ by currency and by channel, and are typically earlier for currencies where the receiving market closes before ours does. This is the commonest cause of a transfer that seems to sit still, and it is the one you have most control over.
How many banks are in the chain
A payment between two banks that hold accounts with each other moves once. A payment between two banks that do not has to go through one or more correspondents, each of which processes it in its own working day and takes its own cut. The number of hops is invisible to you and depends on the currency and the two institutions, which is why the same corridor can take a day for one pair of banks and four for another. Sending in the currency of the destination country generally shortens the chain.
Compliance screening, which is where the tail sits
Every cross border payment is screened, and most clear screening in seconds. A minority are stopped for a human to look at, usually because a name, a country or a reference matched something on a list. When that happens the payment does not fail, it waits, sometimes for days, and the sending customer is rarely told why. Clear references, full and accurate beneficiary details and a plausible stated purpose all reduce the chance of being pulled out of the flow.
The receiving country's own system
Once the money reaches the destination bank, local rules take over. Inside the euro area, a credit transfer is required to reach the beneficiary bank by the end of the next business day, and instant transfers settle in seconds. In the United Kingdom, domestic settlement is effectively immediate at any hour. In other markets the final leg may sit in a domestic batch until the next clearing cycle. The last mile is often faster than the middle, but not always.
Questions people ask about how long does an international bank transfer take
Why does my bank say one to five working days?
Because the number of correspondent banks in the chain and any compliance screening are unknown at the point of sending. The range is honest rather than evasive.
Does sending on a Friday slow it down?
Usually. Miss the cut-off on a Friday and the payment is dated the following working day, which adds a weekend to the total.
Can I speed a transfer up once it has gone?
Rarely. Your bank can trace it, which tells you where it is, but it cannot pull it forward through a correspondent's own processing.
Is sending in the destination currency faster?
Often, because it usually means fewer institutions in the chain and no conversion step at an intermediary.