Public sector banks to stay open on Sunday Sept 27, ahead of three-day strike
RBI has allowed PSBs and RRBs to function as usual on Sunday to prevent a five-day disruption before the September 28-30 bank strike
Public sector banks (PSBs) and regional rural banks (RRBs) will remain open and carry out regular business as usual on Sunday, September 27, 2026. The decision comes ahead of a three-day nationwide strike called by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) on September 28, 29 and 30.
According to the central finance ministry, the RBI has approved keeping bank branches, offices, ATM-linked branches and currency chests fully operational on September 27. This means that despite it being a Sunday, customers will continue to get normal banking services at public sector and rural banks.
The decision was taken because of the risk of banking services being disrupted for five consecutive days. September 26 is the fourth Saturday, and the following day, September 27, is a Sunday, which under normal circumstances would have given banks two consecutive days off. This would have been immediately followed by the proposed three-day strike from September 28 to 30. This raised the risk of actual banking services at branches being affected for five straight days. To ensure customers' essential banking work is not held up for long, the decision was taken to keep banks open on September 27.
The UFBU has proposed a three-day nationwide strike on September 28, 29 and 30. The strike has been called over several demands, including the implementation of a five-day banking week. After a conciliation meeting on September 22 failed to yield concrete progress, the UFBU took the stance of not withdrawing the strike.
The central government and bank managements have appealed to the unions to postpone the proposed strike. The finance ministry has also made clear that steps are being taken to keep essential banking services running.
With public sector and regional rural banks open on September 27, customers will be able to complete cash deposits, essential branch-related transactions, cheque-related work and other necessary banking tasks. Following this, services at branches could be affected between September 28 and 30 due to the proposed strike. However, digital banking, UPI, internet and mobile banking services are expected to continue functioning normally.
