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Starting October 21 banks will be closed for business for five days in a row in many parts of the country.
This is probably for the first time in recent years that Pooja holidays are being followed by Muharram and fourth Saturday, taking the number of successive bank holidays to five, said bank chiefs that BusinessLine spoke to.
ATMs and cash deposit machines will ease the strain, but the former going dry cannot be ruled out.
“It is always better to carry some cash, as the nearest ATM may not work. Youngsters wouldn’t know how to manage without cards,” noted Wing Commander (retd) R Raju Srinivasan.
Banks have started the exercise of estimating ATM cash requirements.
“Our ATM services are managed by an agency, but the cash deposit machines are maintained by us,” said K Venkataraman, Managing Director, Karur Vysya Bank.
Sufficient cash“We are working out the requirement (for the long stretch of holidays),” he added. “Branch managers usually receive alerts if ATMs in the vicinity run out of cash or are out of order; they in turn alert the agency and have the machines loaded. We now have to estimate the requirement of cash in each of the ATMs and give sufficient cash to the agency to fill the trays. With the festival season round the corner, withdrawals could be slightly on the higher side, but we are not expecting high inflows during this period.”
N Kamakodi, CEO of Kumbakonam-headquartered City Union Bank, said that out of its network of nearly 500 branches, about 100 work on fourth Saturdays. “So, effectively the number of bank holidays in some of the branches is reduced to three (excluding Sunday),” he pointed out.
Cash load“We have models to calculate the cash load in the ATMs; and about 300-odd bulk-note acceptors have been enabled with direct payment option facility.
“Meanwhile, we are also working on having emergency cash centres to give cash to the agency that manages our ATMs,” Kamakodi said, adding that most customers use alternative channels, such as mobile and net banking, for a vast proportion of transactions.
“Nevertheless, services such as inter-bank transfers, locker-operations and those looking for huge sums in an emergency situation or looking to raise a loan may have to wait,” he said.
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