Coronavirus Crisis: Are Indian Banks Planning To Shut Most Branches During Lockdown?

India’s central bank and major lenders are working on a plan to close most branches during the country’s lockdown, aiming to prevent tens of thousands of employees from becoming infected with the Coronavirus.

There would likely be only one bank branch open every five kilometers in major cities. (Representative Image/ Getty)

New Delhi: In what might come as a big shocker for citizens of the country, it is being said that Indian banks are mulling over closing most of their branches during the 21-day lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to prevent further spread of deadly Coronavirus, that has already infected over 600 people and costed 13 lives countrywide. A report by news agency Reuters stated that India’s central bank and major lenders are working on a plan to close most branches during the country’s lockdown, aiming to prevent tens of thousands of employees from becoming infected with the Coronavirus. Banking falls under essential services and even after PM Modi's lockdown announcement on Tuesday, select branches of all public and private sectors banks remained open to provide citizens with essential services. However, sources close to Reuters, on the condition of anonymity, claimed that there would likely be only one bank branch open every five kilometers in major cities and the announcement could be made public soon. Sources also said that banks would operate on alternate days in rural areas of the country where people are largely dependent on cash disbursal for their fundamental needs and daily expenses. In these areas, sources said, banks would just focus on the disbursal of welfare money to the poor. Meanwhile, ABP News could not verify the development independently and the information provided in this report completely follows the inputs provided by the aforementioned news agency. It is also being said that some banks of the country have already started testing the planned approach in certain regions, although it was not immediately clear when a full rollout would occur. Indian Banking Association (IBA) has urged customers to use online and mobile banking channels for making their transactions and avoid visiting bank branches as it could pose a risk to banks' front desk staff. Even before the lockdown was announced on March 24, several banks across the country implemented innovative ways to adopt social distancing and reduce the risk of Covid-19 outbreak. It was seen that many banks roped up their counters and desks to keep distance between officials and the customers. Hand sanitizers were also placed at all windows outside bank branches and ATMs. As of now, all banks in the country have been asked to maintain at least four services to its customers - cash deposits and withdrawals, cheque clearances, government transactions, utility bill payments and other remittances. Besides, the government has also reduced charges for digital trade transaction and ATM cash withdrawals to promote digital financial transactions at the time of Covid-19 pandemic. As per the decision announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, debit card holders, who withdraw cash from any bank ATM, can do it free of charge for the next three months. Also, the minimum balance requirement fee has also been withdrawn meaning that an account holder would be permitted to bring down balances to almost zero without banks charging fee for that.