Recent Amendments in Banking Hours: Saturday

With so much of chaos on Saturday as a full day working, I tried to see the basic for all this “Is this a good news? As a banker, should I be Happy? As a customer, should I be disappointed?”

and then I tried recalling, when is the last time that I had visited any – the so called “mortar and brick bank”, consider it for any age group being away from the hub-hub activity, couldn’t recall any for the last few months !

Why do we need to go to a bank, except when you are dealing in cash, getting a Pay order/Draft made, some certificates signed and/or maybe someone to meet 😉

So what difference will it make by keeping them closed or opened for lesser/extended time.

Long ago, the early 2005/2006 new age Banks like Times Bank, Bank of Punjab and IndusInd Bank wanted to open their branches for extended hours, because they “wanted the customers to come to their branch and feel the change” in atmosphere like air-conditioned offices, good decor, ambiance, tea-coffee, pretty looking RM, etc.

That was their way to invite customers!

It’s been a decade to that of banking and it has evolved through many phases.

It is no more the same. Since banks work on productivity of each employee vis-a-vis the cost incurred.Every Bank while mapping the customer looks at the “transactional cost” it incurs on each of them. A transactional cost in simple terms is the “cost, time, money and energy required of an employee in interaction/dealing with one customer for his/her banking needs”

Hence fewer “human interaction” and pushing customer to “other modes of banking like ATM/Debit cards/Internet banking/Phone banking” etc is always “a cheap and easy cost option”

Now, RBI and all banks ( Private as well as Public Sector)  have  willingly accepted the change in Banking Hours and allowed every second and the fourth Saturday of every month as public holiday under Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (26 of 1881) with effect from September 1, 2015 it’s clearly marking a “special path to our PM-Shri Modiji’s dream of less cash transaction and more non-cash transactions in the Economy which will help deter cash transaction – a deadly evil’s hand in ever growing parallel (black money) economy!