India TV Fact Check: A social media post claimed that banks across India will operate only five days a week starting from April 2025 as per a new regulation by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). However, a fact-check by India TV has confirmed that this claim is entirely false.
What is going viral?
A social media post featuring graphics from the Sakshi Post media outlet and a report by Lokmat Times is going viral, claiming that starting from April, banks across the country will operate five days a week, following a new regulation issued by the RBI. The post further states that Saturdays and Sundays have been officially declared as bank holidays.
India TV did investigation
To verify the authenticity of the claim, we conducted a Google keyword search and found that Sakshi Post did publish an article on March 18, 2025, reporting that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had changed bank working hours, stating banks would operate five days a week, with Saturdays and Sundays as holidays.
However, when we checked the official website of the RBI, we did not found any such article or circular making confirming this change. We also reviewed RBI's social media handles but found no such announcement regarding the implementation of a five-day workweek for banks starting April 2025.
During our investigation, we also came across an X post dated March 20, 2025, by the Press Information Bureau’s (PIB) Fact Check unit, the official fact-checking arm of the Union Government, which debunked the claim as fake news. The official PIB Fact Check handle stated, "A news report by Lokmat Times claims that starting from April, banks across the country would operate five days a week following a new regulation issued by RBI."
The post clarified that no such regulation had been issued by the RBI, and urged the public to avoid falling for misinformation. This further confirms that the viral claim about banks shifting to a five-day workweek from April 2025 is false.
On December 5, 2023, a question was raised in Parliament concerning the proposal for a five-day work week in nationalised banks. In response, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad informed that the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) had submitted a proposal requesting that all Saturdays be declared as holidays.
However, the finance ministry's reply did not confirm whether this demand had been accepted or whether there were any plans to implement it in the near future, leaving the matter undecided at that time.
What came out in fact check?
A fact check done by India TV has revealed that the claim that banks will adopt a five-day workweek from April 2025 is completely false. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has not issued any circular enforcing a five-day workweek for banks from April 2025. People are advised to be cautious of any such claim.
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