A claim is being shared on social media stating that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has introduced a new rule requiring that Indian banks remain closed on Saturdays and Sundays, making it a five-day work week.
News outlet Zee Bangla also reported about the viral claim.
(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)
Is the claim true?: No, the claim is false. The RBI has not released any such official notice or guidelines.
What we found: At first, we checked RBI's website to find out if any such regulation was released by the apex court.
According to a press announcement from the RBI in August 2015, all scheduled and non-scheduled banks, including public, private, foreign, cooperative, regional rural, and local area banks, would be closed on every Sunday and on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month, effective from 1 September 2015.
It noted that every other Saturday was a complete working day.
Team WebQoof found another press note from April 2019 on the RBI website which stated, "It has been reported in certain sections of the media that commercial banks would have a 5-day week in terms of RBI instructions. It is clarified that this information is not factually correct. RBI has not issued any such directions." (sic.)
We also found a fact-check regarding a Lokmat Times report that mentioned banks adopting a five-day work week by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) from 20 March.
It stated that the RBI had not announced any such information.
We also reviewed the RBI's social media accounts, which similarly lacked any details regarding the purported new weekly bank holidays, as claimed.
Conclusion: The viral claim about bank weekly offs being on every Saturday and Sunday is false.
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