---
title: Outbound and inbound
slug: concepts/payments/wires/outbound-and-inbound
description: Wire payment settlement depends on direction (inbound/outbound), type (value/ non-value), and whether the request meets your contract’s cutoff time.
docTags: 
createdAt: 2025-04-08T05:43:19.617Z
---

## How wire payments work

Understanding the mechanics of sending and receiving payments is essential for managing account balances. These factor influence when a payment will settle (clear):

- **Direction**: Is it an inbound or outbound payment?
-

  **Payment type**: is it a value (meaning *credit transfer*) or a non-value (meaning *investigation request*)?
-
  **Contractual cutoff time**: Was the outbound payment request received by Cross River before the cutoff time defined in your contact?

[Learn more about payment transactions and settlement](docId\:luDEbxnwU8p7Knb_bDM6I) 

## Outbound wires

When a customer uses [send an outbound wire](docId\:mC0d1W1u80umazO85mEIz) API, money is wired to an account at an external bank. When a wire payment is accepted and acknowledged by the Federal Reserve, an IMAD (IMAD) is assigned to the payment and returned in the API. This can be used to track the payment via the FedWire Funds Transfer system.

When you initiate an outbound payment, the following steps occur:

- The system attempts to post a transaction to the originating account for the amount of the payment.
-
  The system scans the payment data for OFAC compliance. Any potential matches require manual review by our BSA/AML team.

Once the transaction posts successfully and gets OFAC clearance, the payment status changes to *Pending*.

:::hint{type="warning"}
If the transaction cannot be posted to the originating account, the payment status updates to *Rejected*. The `Wire.Payment.Rejected` webhook event triggers.
:::

The next step is to add your payment to a distribution or outbound batch. Distributions are created throughout the day and are sent to the Federal Reserve for processing.

Once the distribution is released and acknowledged by the Federal Reserve, the `Wire.Payment.Sent` event triggers, and the payment status updates to *Completed*, marking the end of the payment lifecycle.

:::hint{type="info"}
See our tutorial to learn how to [send a wire payment](docId\:PtkMaOjX6exmQAsKrcJNv) via API.
:::

![](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/511c8QBH-VHiwWnyzIwUb/RIJGqtXwKrGk87v0Kl9vr_wires-out.png)

The following diagram shows the status and [webhook event](docId\:OA3cg-apKn_510VPq2yYe) flows for outbound wire transfers:

![](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/4hvUOg5mU1sCngl0n0Has/_5TF3qjLQpOreifWWyEOj-20251030-084753.png)

## Inbound wires

When a customer receives an incoming wire, an external bank wires money to a Cross River account. You receive a [webhook event](docId\:OA3cg-apKn_510VPq2yYe) to indicate that a wire has been received.

When an inbound wire payment is received, the system attempts to post a transaction to the account specified in the beneficiary identifier field within the payment details. Once the payment posts successfully posted, the `Wire.Payment.Received` webhook event triggers.

 If the transaction fails to post, the payment returns to the originating bank.  

:::hint{type="info"}
Inbound payments that fail to post and are returned will not be visible to you.
:::

There are various ways a wire can be originated due to the numerous fields available in the payment message. Consequently, the details within the `Wire.Payment.Received` webhook event payload may differ. 

![](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/511c8QBH-VHiwWnyzIwUb/xZU5AOG3QAFhLXRDFTPqI_wires-in.png)

The following diagram shows the status and [webhook event](docId\:OA3cg-apKn_510VPq2yYe) flows for inbound wire transfers:

![](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/4hvUOg5mU1sCngl0n0Has/BIVmc3rJvh39W2kiWN8nH-20251030-084745.png)