According to a first aspect, efficient data transfer operations can be achieved by: decoding by a processor device, a single instruction specifying a transfer operation for a plurality of data elements between a first storage location and a second storage location; issuing the single instruction for execution by an execution unit in the processor; detecting an occurrence of an exception during execution of the single instruction; and in response to the exception, delivering pending traps or interrupts to an exception handler prior to delivering the exception.