A register bank of a channel of a direct memory access circuit is initialized. Transfer cycles are executed as configured by the register bank, and updates are made to the registers from a memory. At each transfer cycle, an operation is performed in accordance with a first field of the register bank to either: carry on the execution or generate a first signal and suspend the execution. In response to each reception of the first signal by a central processing unit, an operation is performed to either: generate a second signal or modify the content of the register band and/or record into the memory a first item representative of a next update of the register bank. A second signal is then generated.