GLOBAL PAYMENTS KNOWLEDGEISO 20022 / SWIFT / SEPA / MT / MX
PAYMENTSSIGNAL

The interactive academy for the standards, messages, and rails that move money.

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A Brazil STR reserve transfer (BR RTGS)

A high-value real payment settles one-for-one across the banks' reserve accounts at the Banco Central do Brasil, in real time and with finality — no netting, no waiting for a cycle.

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Contributor Shubham Mathure

STEP 1 / 5MESSAGE

Bank Alfa submits the STR transfer

Bank Alfa (sending bank) → STR (Reserve Transfer System)

The sending bank submits a Reserve Transfer System message to move a high-value interbank obligation to Nordbank. Nothing has moved yet — it is a request, not the money.

Step 1 of 5: Bank Alfa submits the STR transfer

  1. 01Message
    Bank Alfa submits the STR transferBank Alfa (sending bank) → STR (Reserve Transfer System)
  2. 02Message
    STR checks Bank Alfa's reserve balanceSTR (Reserve Transfer System) → Banco Central do Brasil
  3. 03Settlement
    The BCB settles the payment in central-bank reservesBank Alfa (sending bank) → Nordbank (receiving bank)
  4. 04Message
    Nordbank is confirmed of the settled paymentSTR (Reserve Transfer System) → Nordbank (receiving bank)
  5. 05Posting
    Nordbank books the fundsNordbank (receiving bank)
MESSAGECLEARING OBLIGATIONSETTLEMENTPOSTING
Full step-by-step text (works without JavaScript)
  1. 01Message
    Bank Alfa submits the STR transferBank Alfa (sending bank) → STR (Reserve Transfer System)

    The sending bank submits a Reserve Transfer System message to move a high-value interbank obligation to Nordbank. Nothing has moved yet — it is a request, not the money.

  2. 02Message
    STR checks Bank Alfa's reserve balanceSTR (Reserve Transfer System) → Banco Central do Brasil

    The STR asks the Banco Central do Brasil whether Bank Alfa's reserve account holds the funds now — an RTGS rail will not create reserves a bank does not have.

  3. 03Settlement
    The BCB settles the payment in central-bank reservesBank Alfa (sending bank) → Nordbank (receiving bank)

    The Banco Central do Brasil debits Bank Alfa's reserve account and credits Nordbank's, one payment at a time, in central-bank reserves. Settlement is individual, gross, and final — it cannot be reversed.

    • DR Bank Alfa's reserve account at the BCB — BRL 3,000,000.00
    • CR Nordbank's reserve account at the BCB — BRL 3,000,000.00
  4. 04Message
    Nordbank is confirmed of the settled paymentSTR (Reserve Transfer System) → Nordbank (receiving bank)

    The STR tells the receiving bank the reals are on its reserve account at the BCB and final, with the details it needs to book the funds.

  5. 05Posting
    Nordbank books the fundsNordbank (receiving bank)

    Because the interbank leg already settled with finality in central-bank reserves, Nordbank can book the credit on its own ledger without waiting for anything else.

    • CR Interbank funds received at Nordbank — BRL 3,000,000.00

What this simplifies: One payment settling gross in central-bank reserves. Real STR operation depends on business-hour cut-offs, intraday liquidity, and interbank funding across the whole day.

LEARN THE CONCEPTS BEHIND THIS FLOW

Sources for this flow2
  1. Official requirement

    Pix, the Instant Payment System (SPI) and the Reserve Transfer System (STR) ↗ — Banco Central do Brasil

    Describes Pix, the instant payment platform created and managed by the Banco Central do Brasil: 24/7 real transfers addressed by a Pix key (phone, email, tax ID or random string) resolved through the DICT directory, settled individually and one-to-one, final and irrevocable, over the Instant Payment System (SPI), an RTGS available every day; and the STR (Reserve Transfer System), Brazils wholesale RTGS for interbank reserve transfers. · Checked 2026-07-14

    Pix settles over the SPI (RTGS) in about three seconds; the STR is the wholesale reserve-transfer RTGS operated by the BCB.

  2. Simplified educational illustration

    Payments Signal editorial teaching models — Payments Signal

    This site's own simplified teaching models. · Checked 2026-07-12

    What this simplifies: Fictional banks and a single high-value transfer; real STR flows involve many participants, intraday liquidity management, and operating-hour cut-offs not shown here.

    Used wherever diagrams, scenarios, figures, or example values are didactic constructions rather than sourced facts; every such use carries a simplifications disclosure. All people, companies, banks, and list entries in examples are fictional.