Bank Holiday Saturday: Are Banks Closed Today Or Not On December 21, 2024?

Bank Holiday Saturday: India's scheduled commercial banks are closed for only two Saturdays every month, while the business is as usual for the remaining days. Since December 21 is also a Saturday, are banks today open or closed?

As per RBI's guidelines, banks will be closed on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month. Since December 21, is a third Saturday, banks are operating as normal, but the working hours are shortened.

Effective from September 1, 2015, RBI directed all scheduled and non-scheduled banks - public, private, foreign, cooperative, regional rural and local area banks - will observe public holidays on the second and fourth, and will observe full working days on Saturdays and other than second and fourth Saturdays.

Since December 21 is a working day, payment systems such as Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT), Cheque Clearing operated by various Bankers' Clearing Houses in the country including the grid-based Cheque Truncation System (CTS) and ECS suite [Electronic Clearing Service (ECS), Regional Electronic Clearing Service (RECS) and National Electronic Clearing Service (NECS)] --- will be accessible.

Notably, RBI has also directed that all money market segments, namely, call/notice/term money, market repo and Collateralised Borrowing and Lending Obligation(CBLO) will remain open on all working Saturdays as on any normal business day. Hence, this is open on December 21 as well.

Additionally, the Banking Departments in Regional Offices of the Reserve Bank will remain open for the full day on working Saturdays as required to support the functioning of the Financial Markets and the Payment Systems. Government business will be transacted at agency banks on working Saturdays.

What is closed? Notably, as per RBI's guidelines, forex market and Government securities markets, along with all OTC derivative markets would remain closed on all Saturdays, as hitherto.

There have been debates about allowing banks to have only a 5-working days pattern with the weekend holiday. Last year, in December, the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) and bank unions formed an agreement which included the proposal to allow banks to have a 5-day working week. Later, in March this year, the unions signed its 9th Joint Note which reiterated the 5-day working week proposal as well. However, the matter is pending for government approval.

If a 5-day working week is adopted by banks, it would mean scheduled commercial banks will be closed on the first and third Saturdays as well of a month.