Financial Services Secretary Debashish Pandey has said that Bank branches will remain open during the 21-day nationwide lockdown that began Wednesday in the country to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Eliminating rumors of the closure of bank branches, he said that customer service branches have been included in essential services. The Financial Services Secretary has assured customers that there is no shortage of cash in banks. He also asked people not to believe in the rumor of the closure of bank branches.
Pandey said in a tweet, 'Customer service bank branches are on and will continue to provide services. There is no shortage of cash in ATMs and bank branches. Ignore rumors of bank branches closing.'
Many public and private sector banks have cut their working hours in view of the coronavirus epidemic. In order to maintain social distance in view of the outbreak of Coronavirus, the country's largest bank State Bank of India has also cut its working hours.
PK Gupta, managing director of retail banking at SBI, said, "In many states, we have reduced the opening hours of the branch. Like in many states it is from 7 am to 10 am, in some states from 8 am to 11 am and in some states from 10 am to 2 pm."
Axis Bank has also changed its working hours. The new time is from 10 am to 2 pm. Several other private sector banks such as HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank have also changed their working hours in view of the coronavirus epidemic.
