Banks to remain open on 12, 13 November
09 Nov 2016
Banks will remain open on Saturday and Sunday (November 12 and 13) to deal with the rush of people expected to queue up at branches to exchange now-invalid currency notes of Rs500 and Rs1,000.
Banks will also work an extra two hours on 10 and 11 November to help customers queuing up to deposit their 500 and 1,000 rupee notes.
For public convenience, banks will remain open on coming Saturday and Sunday, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das tweeted.
Banks are otherwise closed on 12 and 13 of November for second Saturday and Sunday as per the normal schedule of the month, but RBI decided to keep banks open in view of the expected rush at bank branches.
''In order to meet the anticipated heavy demand from members of public to conduct their banking transactions, it has been decided that banks shall remain open for public transactions on Saturday, November 12 and Sunday, November 13, 2016, RBI said, adding that banks have been advised to keep all their branches open on these two days as regular working days for transacting all business.
This means that all 149 scheduled commercial banks, including 56 regional rural banks, with a branch network of about 1.3 lakh across the country will be functioning as usual on Saturday and Sunday.
Besides, co-operative banks have also been asked to take deposit and exchange the old with the new one.
It is, however, not clear whether banks will remain open on Monday, 14 November, which again is a holiday.
In a surprise move the government demonetised Rs1,000 and Rs500 notes with effect from midnight of Tuesday stretching its fight against the menace of black money, fake currency, corruption and terror financing.
The RBI also announced that the new notes of Rs2,000 and Rs500 denominations would be available from this Friday, ie, 11 November.
RBI has released images and features of the new Rs2000 and Rs500 notes, but refuted reports of the new notes having 'nano GPS chip' that can be used to track the notes from anywhere.
