BANKING HOURS/WORKING HOURS/OPERATION :

– Banks are required to function for public transactions at least for 4 hours on week days and 2 hours on Saturdays in the larger interest of public and trading community. Extension counters, satellite offices, one man offices or other special class of branches may remain open for such shorter hours as may be considered necessary.

– Banks may fix, after due notice to customers, whatever business hours are convenient i.e. double shift, weekly holiday other than Sunday, or functioning Sundays also (7 days working) etc.

– The banks’ branches in rural areas can fix the business hours (i.e., number of hours, as well as timings) and the weekly holidays to suit local requirements subject to the guidelines.

– Commencement of employees’ working hours 15 minutes before commencement of business hours could be made operative by banks at branches in metropolitan and urban centres.

– Banks are required to extend business hours for banking transactions other than cash till one hour before close of working hours. Banks can have evening counters at the premises of existing branches in metropolitan/ urban centres for providing facilities to the public beyond normal business hours to bring about improvement in customer service and the transactions should be merged with the main accounts of the branch where it is set up.

– All branches except very small branches should have “Enquiry” or “May I help You” counters either exclusively or combined with other duties located near the entry point of the banking hall. Time norms should also be displayed prominently in the banking hall.

– All Branch branches are required to display the various products and services they provide along with various key aspects such as service charges, interest rates, time norms for various banking transactions and grievance redressal mechanism, etc. grouped in 4 heads viz. “Customer Service Information”, “Service Charges”, “Grievance redressal” and “Others” as indicators in the Notice Boards as per the format provided by RBI. This would enhance the quality of customer service in banks and level of customer satisfaction.

– Further, in addition to the above Board, the banks should also display details such as ‘Name of the bank / branch, Working Days, Working Hours and Weekly Off-days’ outside the branch premises.

– Banks are further required to make available the detailed information in their Web-site in such a manner that customers are able to easily access the same from the Home Page of the site, besides in booklet form in the touch screen by placing them in the information kiosks or Scroll Bars, or Tag Boards. Website should contain the minimum information such as Policy/Guidelines, Complaints, Opening of accounts/ forms, Loans and Advances, Branches, etc.

Declaration of Holiday under the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881

– In terms of Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, the expression “public holiday” includes Sunday and any other day declared by the Central Government by notification in the Official Gazette to be a public holiday.

– This power has been delegated to State Govt. by Central Govt. subject to the condition that the Central Government may itself exercise the said function, should it deem fit to do so and this implies that when Central Government itself has notified a day as “public holiday” under Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, there is no need for banks to wait for the State Government notification.

Miscellaneous

– In predominantly residential areas banks may keep their branches open for business on Sundays by suitably adjusting the holidays and banks should keep rural branches open on weekly market day.

– Banks are required to accept standing instructions in Savings and Current accounts and the same can be enlarged to include payments on account of taxes, bills, rents, school/college fees, etc.

– Branch Manger may be permitted to allow clean overdraft for small amounts to customers whose dealings have been satisfactory.

– All transactions, including payment of interest on deposits/charging of interest on advances, should be rounded off to the nearest rupee

– In order to keep a watch on the progress achieved by the bank in the implementation of the recommendations of various working groups/Committees on customer service, banks may examine the recommendations which have relevance in the present day banking and continue to implement them.

– Banks should follow various provisions of the Code of Bank’s Commitment to Customers, implementation of which is monitored by the Banking Codes and Standards Board of India (BCSBI), etc.