Banks in the country will remain shut for 12 days including weekends in the month of May. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) holiday calendar, available on its official website, displays five festive holidays. Along with this, other holidays include the five Sundays of the month, second and fourth Saturdays.
As per the RBI website, the first holiday will be on Saturday, 1 May for Maharashtra Day/ May Day/Labour Day in select cities.
The second bank holiday will be on Friday, 7 May to mark the occasion of Jumat-ul-Vida (the last Friday of Ramzan).
The third holiday of the month is going to be on Thursday, 13 May on the festival of Eid-Ul-Fitr while Friday, 14 May will be an off because of several festivals including Bhagvan Shree Parshuram Jayanti/ Basava Jayanti/Akshaya Tritiya.
Wednesday, 26 May is also going to be a bank holiday to mark Buddha Purnima.
Weekly offs will be on five Sundays — 2 May, 9 May, 16 May, 23 May, and 30 May, and two Saturdays — 8 May and 22 May.
The United Forum of Bank Unions has asked for reducing working hours for banks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They have suggested that working with limited staff and from home should also be considered. The forum has requested that for the next four to six months, physical banking should be restricted. It has demanded that a five-day work week should be implemented in banks. The forum has also suggested that instead of opening all the branches, banks can operate a few branches during the pandemic.