SBP restores banks' Saturday holiday
The State Bank of Pakistan as well as Banks shall remain closed on Saturday.
As per the instructions of the State Bank of Pakistan, the banks will observe the below mentioned working days and timings with immediate effect.
SBP, as well as banks, will be on working Monday to Thursday from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm with prayer/ lunch break from 1:30 pm to 2:15 pm whereas on Friday office hours will be from 9:00 am 6 pm with prayer/lunch break from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm.
Banks / Microfinance Banks (MFBS) may prescribe business (banking) hours for public dealing as per their business requirements provided the business (banking) hours being observed by the field offices of SBP Banking Services Corporation (SBP-BSC) are complied with as a minimum benchmark for this purpose, it stated in its Press release. Further, in order to ensure the availability of basic banking facilities to the business community and the public at large, banks / MFBS may open their selected branches situated in major cities/business centres / commercial markets & hubs/ports on Saturdays as per their business requirements. The collection booths of banks located at Custom Houses / Ports shall remain open 24/7 as per existing practice. However, banks / MFBS shall submit a complete list of branches that will be opened on Saturdays to the Banking Policy & Regulations Department and also place the updated list of such branches on their websites.
For the information of customers, banks / MFBS shall prominently display in the concerned branch that this branch will remain open on Saturdays.
The above instructions shall continue to remain in force unless modified or withdrawn.
On April 13, the central bank had announced it was increasing the working hours of banks on the directives of the federal government by declaring Saturday — otherwise a holiday — as a working day.
On the other hand, the federal government announced that government offices would continue to function six days a week.
According to a notification issued by the Establishment Division, the timings from Monday to Thursday and for Saturday would be from 8am to 3pm while the prayer break would be from 1pm to 1:30pm. On Fridays, office timings would be from 8am to 1pm.