Take out cash before the ATMs dry up, banks to remain closed for 5 days

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: The banking sector will have a long vacation, thanks to the co-inciding dates of the list of holidays this week.

Banks will remain closed for five days in a row. The dates being –October 21 for Durga Puja, October 22 for Dusshera, October 23 for Moharram, October 24 for fourth Saturday (second and fourth Saturdays of a month are holidays for government-owned banks) and October 25 being Sunday.

Owing to this long closure, banking services will affect business transactions. While the banking activities will come to a halt, ATM holders will have to suffer the most since ATMs are expected to run out of cash.

Though almost all the banks have privatised cash loading in ATMs and so they have to plan stocking of cash carefully, owing to the long holidays, there could be problems of cash starvation.

The focus of banks to replenish ATMs with cash will be a lot more in states like Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, because the continuous list of holidays will be observed in these states.