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This is very important news for crores of bank account holders across the country. If you have to complete any important financial work by going to the bank branch, then without delay reach your nearest branch today. An alert has been issued for customers of many major government and private banks including State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB), Bank of Baroda and HDFC Bank. In the coming days, normal work in bank branches may come to a complete halt for three consecutive days. In such a situation, if you do not complete your work on time, then your important tasks like check clearance, making demand draft and withdrawing cash from the branch may get stuck in the middle.
The main reason for this long bank holiday is the weekly holiday of the fourth Saturday of the month, Sunday as well as the coinciding of local and national festivals. According to the official holiday calendar list of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), bank branches will remain closed due to regional festivals and public holidays in various states of the country. In such a situation, customers should plan their transactions in advance to avoid any kind of inconvenience.
According to the list of holidays released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), all banks across the country are compulsorily closed on the second and fourth Saturdays and every Sunday of every month. This time there is a coincidence of local festival or national holiday with the holidays of fourth Saturday and Sunday. Whenever such a long weekend arrives, bank branches remain closed for three consecutive days.
This time too, Friday or Monday has been declared a holiday due to some special festival, regional jubilee or national festival, due to which bank employees will remain on leave for 72 continuous hours. Due to this, public dealing work in the branches will be completely suspended. It is important for customers to understand that bank holiday dates are not the same in all states. While in some states there will be a holiday on Friday due to local festivals, in some states the branches will remain closed on Monday, resulting in continuous closure of 3 days in both the cases.
State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest commercial bank, has appealed to crores of its account holders to settle their important documents and paperwork on time to avoid last-minute panic. According to bank officials, often immediately after the holidays, there is huge crowd in the branches, due to which a lot of customers’ time is wasted and the load on the system also increases.
Apart from SBI, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of India, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank have also sent SMS and email alerts to their customers informing them that they should complete the necessary services like depositing their checks in drop boxes, opening new accounts, loan approval related paperwork and locker visits before the bank holiday. If any of your check clearance is deposited after Friday, its settlement will be possible only on the next working day.
At the local level, the impact of bank holidays can be seen differently in different cities and states. There is huge demand for commercial activities in states like New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Noida), Bihar (Patna, Gaya), Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and West Bengal. Local traders, wholesalers and ordinary citizens have to depend on bank branches to maintain cash flow.
If you live in major business centers like Lucknow, Kanpur, Delhi NCR or Patna, the demand for cash in local mandis and retail markets increases significantly. Due to the continuous closure of three days, local traders may face difficulty in depositing their daily collections. Apart from this, those who have to pay school-college fees through bank challan or deposit any tax challan in the government treasury, need to keep in mind that they may miss the last date if the challan counter remains closed. Therefore, please confirm the local bank schedule of your respective city.
The three-day long bank holiday can have a direct impact on the ATM machines near you. Although the bank management instructs the third party agencies loading cash in ATMs to maintain sufficient currency, but if the bank remains closed for three consecutive days, the possibility of the ATM running out of cash increases. Especially the ATMs installed in densely populated residential areas and major markets become empty on the second day of the weekend.
To avoid this problem, customers are advised to withdraw the necessary cash as per their normal daily needs before the start of the weekend and keep it with them. Additionally, if cash is not available at your nearest ATM, you can resort to mini ATMs and Aadhaar based payment system (AePS) available at petrol pumps, big supermarkets or Bank Mitra (kiosk banking outlets).
The closure of bank branches does not at all mean that your banking will stop completely. In the era of Digital India, many excellent and secure transaction options are available to customers 24 hours a day. Still it is important to know what will remain on and what will be closed during this period:
Services that remain completely closed: Branch visits, cash deposits and withdrawals, check clearance and clearing house operations, demand drafts and pay orders, use of bank lockers, opening of new bank accounts or submission of KYC update documents, processing of loan applications and submission of government challans.
24×7 services: Internet Banking and Mobile Banking (YONO SBI, PNB One, iMobile etc.), Fund Transfer through UPI (Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm, BHIM), Instant online money sending through IMPS and NEFT, RTGS digital facilities, Cash withdrawal and balance inquiry from ATMs, Debit and Credit cards through POS machines and Online shopping on e-commerce sites.
If you have any work which can be done only by visiting the bank branch counter, then reach the bank in the first half of the working day without any delay. At the end of the month and before holidays, branches often have long queues of customers during the afternoon hours.
If you have to make a large payment to someone, use net banking or UPI instead of issuing a cheque, as the check clearing cycle will come to a complete halt during holidays and it may take an additional 3 to 4 days for the money to reach the recipient’s account. Along with this, keep the PIN and UPI password of the mobile banking app correct in your phone so that in case of emergency, any digital transaction does not get hampered.