Standing order (banking)

A standing order (or a standing instruction) is an instruction a bank account holder ("the payer") gives to their bank to pay a set amount at regular intervals to another's ("the payee's") account. The instruction is sometimes known as a banker's order.

They are typically used to pay rent, mortgage or any other fixed regular payments. Because the amounts paid are fixed, a standing order is not usually suitable for paying variable bills such as credit cards or gas and electricity bills.

Standing orders are available in the banking systems of a number of countries, including Germany, Bulgaria, the United Kingdom, Barbados, Ireland, India, Netherlands, Russia, Pakistan, Malaysia, Ukraine, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and presumably many others. In the United States, and other countries where cheques are more popular than bank transfers, a similar service is available, in which the bank automatically mails a cheque to the specified payee. In Canada, the Interac network holds a monopoly on inter-bank transfers and has banned any type of automated (recurring or pre-scheduled) transfer between banks directly (though in practice this restriction does not apply to those with corporate accounts).