Banks will remain open on coming Saturday and Sunday to deal with the rush of people expected to queue up at branches to exchange now-invalid currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.
For public convenience, banks will remain open on coming Saturday and Sunday, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das tweeted.
As per the normal schedule, the coming Saturday being the second would have been an holiday, but keeping in view the expected rush at the branches, it was decided otherwise.
There are about 149 scheduled commercial banks, including 56 regional rural banks, with branch network of about 1.30 lakh across the country. Besides, the co-operative banks have also been asked to take deposit and exchange the old with the new one.
It is, however, not clear whether post offices would be open or not on the weekend. There are about 1.25 lakh post offices across the country.
At the same time, the government and RBI are yet to take a call on keeping banks open on Monday, November 14, which is a holiday.
"In order to meet the anticipated heavy demand from members of the public to conduct their banking transactions, it has been decided that banks shall remain open for public transactions on Saturday, November 12, and Sunday, November 13, 2016," RBI said in a statement.
In a surprise move, Prime Minister Narendra Modi last night announced demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes with effect from Wednesday to fight the menace of black money, fake currency, corruption and terror financing.
Banks are advised to keep all their branches open on November 12 and 13, 2016, as regular working days for transacting all business, it said.
RBI also asked banks to give due publicity to the availability of banking services on these days.
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