BANKING UPDATE: What’s fate of 5-day week proposal for banks?

The Ministry of Finance has confirmed that the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) submitted a proposal to declare all Saturdays as banking holidays.

STC NEWS MONITORING DESK
SRINAGAR, DECEMBER 01 (STC): Even as demand for five-day week in banks, seeking to make all Saturdays and Sundays bank holidays, has been strongly voiced by the banking fraternity for the last few years, the proposal to make any changes in the working- days structure of the banks has reached to the highest authorities for approval.
At present, banks follow a system introduced in August 2015, when the government declared the second and fourth Saturdays of every month as public holidays under the Negotiable Instruments Act. All other Saturdays remain working days for banks. The latest proposal aims to extend this holiday structure to all Saturdays uniformly across the banking sector.
A five-day workweek for banks has been a long-standing demand by bank unions and the proposal is formally before the government. The government has also clarified its position. In a written reply in the Lok Sabha on July 28, 2025, the Ministry of Finance confirmed that the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) submitted a proposal to declare all Saturdays as banking holidays.
The proposal seeking to make all Saturdays and Sundays bank holidays, envisages to balance the weekly working hours with employees likely to see an extension of their daily workday by around 40 minutes from Monday to Friday. Notably, the All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC) has argued that this shift would boost morale, improve productivity and align the banking sector with modern work practices.
The Indian Banking Association (IBA) has already forwarded the recommendation to the Government of India for consideration. In July 2025, the Ministry of Finance informed Parliament that the proposal is still “under consideration.”
Earlier, in April 2025, the ministry indicated that the five-day week was unlikely to be implemented in the financial year 2025–26. Both the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) must approve the proposal before it can be implemented and neither institution has provided a green signal so far.
In short, at the moment, there is no approved timeline for introducing a five-day banking week. The proposal still remains under examination. The Finance Ministry and RBI seem in no mood to grant final approval to the proposed new structure to make all Saturdays and Sundays bank holidays.
(Straight Talk Communications)