Bank Holidays 2026: Why Banks Have Back-To-Back 3 Days Holiday Next Week? Muharram, Ashura To 4th Saturday

Banks in India are up for along weekend next week due to the occasions of Muharram, Ashura and the third Saturday. While banks will be open from June 22nd to June 25th, they will be closed for three consecutive days from June 26th to June 28th. In India, bank holidays are decided by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) depending upon the national holidays, state-level holidays and festivals. Bank holidays sometimes collide with general public holidays but they vary from city to city.

Banks Open Next Week

All banks in India will function as per normal hours on June 22nd, June 23rd, June 24th and June 25th.

Bank Holidays Next Week

But banks will be closed on June 26th, June 27th and June 28th. The reasons are different city-wise.

Bank Holiday On June 26:

On this day, banks will be closed in majority of cities due to Muharram (Yaom-EShahadath)/Last Day of Moharam/Ashura.

Banks will be closed in cities like Agartala, Aizawl, Belapur, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jammu, Kanpur Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi, Srinagar, and Vijayawada.

However, banks will also be opened in several other cities such as Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Guwahati, Gangtok, Imphal, Itanagar, Jaipur, Kochi, Kohima, Panaji, Shillong, Shimla, and Thiruvananthapuram.

Bank Holiday On June 28:

This will be the fourth Saturday for banks. With effect from September 1, 2015, banks are following a unique weekend holiday pattern.

As per RBI guidelines, 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.

This means all banks including foreign and regional. This applies to SBI, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, Union Bank of India and others.

During Saturday holiday, payment systems will not be operated. These include Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT), Cheque Clearing operated by various Bankers' Clearing Houses in the country including the grid based Cheque Truncation System (CTS) and ECS suite [Electronic Clearing Service (ECS), Regional Electronic Clearing Service (RECS) and National Electronic Clearing Service (NECS)].

Bank Holiday On June 28:

This is a Sunday, and all banks will be closed.

Muharram 2026:

Muharram is the first month of the Islamic calendar (also known as the Lunar or Hijri calendar). This 2021 Islamic calendar is based on 12 lunar months, the sighting of a new moon determines the start of a new month. Muharram marks the beginning of the Islamic New Year, so it's the perfect time to make resolutions and establish good habits like giving regular charity, so that you can gain blessings all-year round, as per Islamic Relief Canada Org.

Ashura 2026:

Ashura, also more formally Yawm Ashura, is a day of commemoration in Islam. It occurs annually on the tenth of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar. For Sunni Muslims, Ashura marks the parting of the Red Sea by Moses and the salvation of the Israelites, as per Wikipedia.