A post (here, here & here) is being widely shared on social media claiming that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) introduced a new rule stating that banks in India will be closed every Saturday and Sunday. Let’s verify this claim.
Claim: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has implemented a new rule mandating that all banks in India will be closed every Saturday and Sunday.
Fact: RBI has not announced any change to the existing weekend banking schedule. According to the RBI’s longstanding policy, established in 2015, banks are closed on all Sundays and only on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month. All other Saturdays are full working days. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
An internet search regarding this decision did not reveal any credible reports about the RBI introducing such a rule. The RBI website also makes no mention of this change to weekend bank holidays.
According to a press release issued by the RBI in August 2015, all scheduled and non-scheduled banks—including public, private, foreign, cooperative, regional rural, and local area banks—are closed on all Sundays and on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month, effective from 01 September 2015. All other Saturdays are full working days. Previously, Sundays were holidays and Saturdays were half-days.
Further investigation revealed that this claim was circulated in articles published by unverified websites (here & here) that cited no official sources. We have debunked false claims from such websites in the past. These websites typically use stock images for author photos and publish AI-generated content on sensational & news topics, likely to boost website traffic and ad revenue.
To sum it up, the RBI has not implemented a new rule mandating a holiday for banks every Saturday.
