Public sector banks in India to have uniform timings across all states starting today

• All public sector banks in India will have uniform business hours starting today, 1 October 2019, as per a new directive by the Department of Financial Services.
• Banking hours will now be from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm across all states and union territories (UTs) with the exception of Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland.
• Lunch hours will also be uniform from 2:00 pm to 2:30 pm.

Public sector banks will now have uniform timings across all states as per a new directive issued by the Indian Department of Financial Services.

Customer banking hours will now be from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm in all public sector banks starting today, 1 October 2019 according to documents seen by Business Insider.

Lunch hours, irrespective of business timings, will be from 2:00 pm to 2:30 pm.

The only exceptions to the new rule are the states of Mizoram, Nagaland and Madhya Pradesh. In Mizoram and Nagaland, banks will operate from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm and in Madhya Pradesh, bank timings are 10:30 am to 4:30 pm.

The final hours of operations for two critical states — Gujarat and Maharashtra — are yet to disclosed. The timings for Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Sikkim and Andaman and Nicobar are also undecided.

Convenience and clarity

Previously, each bank used to set their own office timings, which meant opening in the morning used to range between 9:00 am to 10:30 am.

Even different branches within the same bank had different hours of operation depending on their area of business.

The Department of Financial Services consulted with state-level committees of the respective banks to come up with three sets of options — 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm or 11:00 am to 5:00 pm.

After deliberations with District Level Consultative Committees (DLCCs) across India, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm was finalised for all states.

Implementing uniform business hours negates confusion among customers, especially when conducting transactions outside their home branch. As a part of the reforms agenda, the Indian Banks Association (IBA) is also implementing common forms for opening bank accounts across all public sector banks starting today. This will take some time to roll out as older forms get exhausted and new ones are put in their place.

Here’s the full list of banking hours for every state and union territory in India: