Scheduled commercial banks are willing to operate from 8 am keeping in mind the Covid lockdown timings so as to help the larger public, provided the State Level Banking Committee (SLBC) enables them to do so. However, the SLBC has allowed them to operate only from 10 am onwards.
“We are open to any timings stipulated by SLBC,” says Rajanarayanan N, VP & Zonal Head, Bengaluru, Federal Bank. “Extra care is taken to ensure that the ATMs are kept filled so that no customer is affected. Customers are being served to the best extent possible within the guidelines issued by the Govt of Karnataka and State Level Bankers’ Committee.”
The SLBC and the state government decide the timings for banks to operate.
Senior bankers at the regional level also state that while it is not in their hands, they expect banking operations to become normal soon. Meanwhile, they state that their focus is to assist their customers in other ways.
“While we cannot change timings without the permission of the SLBC, we do send our officials to their houses if they need help with transactions, instead of them necessarily coming to the branch, especially if the customer is a senior citizen,” a senior banker from ESAF Small Finance Bank said.
These bankers DH spoke to say that as compared to pre-Covid times, footfall has come down drastically. “Only 40% of what we used to see prior to the pandemic is now our footfall,” says a senior official from South India Bank. If around 100 people used to come earlier, we find that only about 40 people prefer coming to the bank. Rest all use net banking.”
Not just people going to the bank, bankers state that even the use of ATMs has come down. “Only 25% of the people prefer going to ATMs,” a banker said.