Banks to be closed for four consecutive days in September, read on to know which ones

Banks across India, mainly public sector banks, will remain shut for four consecutive days at a stretch from September 26 to September 29 due to strike by bank employees and then holidays.

A bank strike has been called by bank employees’ unions, including All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Officers' Association (AIBOA), Indian National Bank Officers' Congress (INBOC) and National Organisation of Bank Officers (NOBO) following the recent government announcement to merge 10 public sector banks into four.

Four bank unions will observe a two-day strike on September 26 and 27 to protest against the proposed merger of 10 PSU banks to form four bigger banks, which, they say, will result in the reduction in bank branches and thus job losses – all these for no fault of the employees.

September 28 is the fourth Saturday of the month and September 29 is Sunday, banks will remain closed on those two days also. This implies that banks will remain closed for four days.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had last month announced a plan to merge Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank and United Bank. She also said Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank will be merged to form the fourth largest PSB, while Union Bank of India, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank will be merged to form the country’s fifth-largest PSB while Indian Bank and Allahabad Bank will be merged to form the seventh-largest PSB.

Further, she said, Bank of India and Central Bank of India would remain independent.

After the merger, the number of state-run banks will come down from 27 to only 12.