Winning Bizness Desk

Mumbai. Till now banks were closed only on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month. Very soon there is going to be a big change in the banking system of the country when banks will open only five days a week. After the implementation of a five-day week, all the banks of the country will remain completely closed on Saturdays as well. The biggest change that will happen due to the five-day week will be in the banking hours. Bank associations believe that the reduction of two Saturdays in the month will affect banking for about 13 hours. To compensate for this, bank employees will have to work 40 minutes more every day. The updated timings of the banks are yet to be decided. But according to the proposal made by the Bank Association, banking hours can be increased with an increase of 10 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening. Due to this, 5 days from Monday to Friday, the customer will get an additional 40 minutes for transactions every day. For a long time this system prevailed in the banking industry. After this, in the 10th settlement of banks in May 2015, this holiday was started for two weeks on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month. Now after almost 8 years, preparations are being made for the holiday in full swing on Saturday.

Rapidly growing digital transactions to help

The major reason behind the five-day week is the fast growing digital transactions in the country. Banking experts point out that the government is constantly saying that digital transactions including internet banking and UPI are on the rise. In such a situation, the person does not need much cash. Even if a little is needed, those needs are fulfilled by the ATM. This is the reason why the need for five-day week is now being felt more in banks. Although the demand for five-day week in banks was there long ago. If you look at the recent report of PIB regarding the digital transactions happening in the country, it has increased rapidly in the last few years. In 2017-18, where there used to be 2071 crore digital transactions in the country. Whereas in 2022-23, till 31 December, it increased to 9192 crore transactions. Similarly, if we talk about the amount of digital transactions, then in 2017-18 there was a digital transaction of 1962 lakh crores, which has become 2050 crores till 31 December in 2022-23. However, during the period of Kovid, there was a significant increase in it.

All banks will come under Five Day Week

All the banks of the country will come under the purview of this new system. There are 78 banks including 12 government, 21 private banks. All banks including Gramin Bank, Small Finance Bank and Local Bank will come under the ambit of Five Day Week. All major banks including SBI, BOB, PNB, ICICI, HDFC, Axis are involved in this. Talking about Rajasthan, these include Baroda Kshetriya Gramin Bank and Rajasthan Marudhara Gramin Bank in Rajasthan. Due to the five-day week, about 18 lakh bankers across the country will get a big relief. According to the associations associated with banks, there are about 8 lakh government and about 9 lakh private bankers across the country. At the same time, this will be a big relief for about 18 lakh bankers including rural and other banks. These will include both officers and clerk level bankers. Bankers were demanding this for a long time. In the early days in the banking industry, there used to be a 6-day week. After this, the half day system started every Saturday.