MANU/RPRL/0103/2015

Ministry : Reserve Bank of India

Department/Board : RBI

Press Release No. : 2015-2016/528

Date : 28.08.2015

Bank Holiday on Second and Fourth Saturdays from September 1; RBI to offer its Support Services to Banks on Working Saturdays.

All scheduled and non-scheduled banks - public, private, foreign, cooperative, regional rural and local area banks - will observe public holiday on second and fourth Saturdays from September 01, 2015; and will observe full working days on Saturdays other than second and fourth Saturdays (referred to as working Saturdays in the Press Release). Consequent to this, the Reserve Bank of India has announced the following changes in its functioning with effect from September 1, 2015:

I. Financial Market Segments

(a) The financial market segments which are currently open for transactions on Saturdays will continue to remain open on all working Saturdays. That is,

(i) All money market segments, namely, call/notice/term money, market repo and Collateralised Borrowing and Lending Obligation (CBLO) will remain open on all working Saturdays as on any normal business day; and

(ii) Forex market and Government securities markets, along with all OTC derivative markets would remain closed on all Saturdays, as hitherto.

(b) The Reserve Bank will continue to operate fixed rate reverse repo as well as the marginal standing facility (MSF) windows on all working Saturdays between 7:00 pm and 7.30 pm as on any normal business day.

(c) The Reserve Bank will also operate a fixed rate liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) repo window on all working Saturdays between 9.30 am and 10.30 am. The LAF repo window on working Saturdays would in fact be an extension of the Friday LAF window. That is, banks could borrow for three days on Friday, within the prescribed limits, and any residual unused limit could be utilised for a 2-day period on working Saturdays.

II. Payment Systems

(i) Payment systems will not be operated on second and fourth Saturdays but would operate for full day on working Saturdays. Payment systems typically includes Real Time Gross Settlemen........