Illegal for banks to close more than 3 days in a row?

[snopes]

Comment: For years I have heard that it is illegal for US banks to be
closed for no more than three consecutive days.
This rumor was running wild this year (2009) since Christmas eve fell on a
Thursday, Christmas on Friday and followed by the weekend.
I have searched the internet and can find no proof there is such a law.

[JoeBentley]

The FDIC, the only possible organization that I can imagine holding jurisdiction over all banks in the US, only mentions business hours once in its Laws, Rules and Regulations, Related Acts. Under section 2000, Appendix A, Section 3 it outlines the criteria the FDIC has for rating banks and states that once such criteria for giving a bank a certain rating is:

Its services (including, where appropriate, business hours) do not vary in a way that inconveniences its assessment area(s), particularly low- and moderate-income geographies and low- and moderate-income individuals

No mention of any law concerning business hours however. http://www.fdic.gov/regulations/laws...2000-6600.html

[Four Kitties]

The Federal Reserve may have some jurisdiction as well.

States have their own banking regulations: in Massachusetts, a bank can close during it's regularly-scheduled and posted hours for several reasons, but any unscheduled closings have to be reported to the Banking Commissioner and may be taken into consideration when reviewing that institution's license to operate within the Commonwealth.

Four Kitties

[diddy]

Not a problem here - banks are open (albeit shorter hours) on weekends.

[snopes]

It makes sense that there would be some regulation on how long banks can remain closed of their own accord during times when they would normally be open (i.e., non-holiday, non-weekend business hours), as otherwise troubled banks could forestall depositor withdrawals simply by remaining closed indefinitely. I suspect, though, that any such regulation is effected (as suggested by Four Kitties) through a patchwork of different state and local laws, not a single hard and fast industry-wide law that decrees no bank shall ever be closed for more than three days.

[Singing in the Drizzle]

This rumor was running wild this year (2009) since Christmas eve fell on a
Thursday, Christmas on Friday and followed by the weekend.

At least in Washington state I have never known Christmas eve to be a bank holiday. They may have shortened hours, but never closed.

One of my relatives was a bank manager and she was talking about this one time. She said the they could not be closed more than 3 days in a row. I did not think to ask if that was federal, state law or company policy. I have not way of asking that question any more since she is not among the living any more.

[Simply Madeline]

Is it possible that there are some transactions that are required to be completed within 72 hours of initiation? Prior to the advent of electronic banking, this would have meant the bank must be open to process the transaction.

[Four Kitties]

Originally Posted by Simply Madeline

Is it possible that there are some transactions that are required to be completed within 72 hours of initiation? Prior to the advent of electronic banking, this would have meant the bank must be open to process the transaction.

Don't know about then, but now banking transactions are posted electronically outside business hours, just as the Post Office keeps moving mail outside of their office hours. When I worked in corporate cash management for a national bank, processing departments were staffed 24/7: they had skeleton staffs on weekends and holidays, but they were always open and operating.

I think that transactions that have time limits are phrased in terms of "business days," not a specified number of hours; but I may be wrong. I've been out of banking for almost two decades.

Four Kitties

[pirateslife]

I work at a bank in Texas, and have been told by managment that we cannot be closed more than three days in a row (including non-banking days, like Saturday and Sunday) due to federal regulations. We did work a shortened Christmas Eve day so that we could close that Friday. That's also why our bank never gets Black Friday off, even though Black Friday is actually one of the slowest days of the year for us. Last year my manager let us take hour and a half lunch breaks two tellers at a time so we could hit the BF sales if we wanted to. But since Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday, closing the bank that Friday is not allowed.

[Hero_Mike]

It would not usually be a problem in the US since there are never two stat holidays on consecutive days, however, here in Canada we have December 26th as Boxing Day, so with either the 25th or 26th falling on a weekend, banks would be closed for four days as the stat holidays will take place on the Monday (or Monday and Tuesday) immediately following the weekend. 2010 will have this. 2009 was more interesting as the 25th was a Friday, the Boxing Day holiday moved to the 28th, and the 1st was a Friday, so over an period of 10 days (from December 25 to January 3)there were only 3 business weekdays with "normal" banking, mail delivery, etc.

[Judecat]

I thought the law was talking about being closed for 3 days consecutive unscheduled days in a row -- so if they are not normally open on weekends, and a regularly scheduled holiday falls on a Friday or a Monday, then they are not using unscheduled days.
I always thought this law was put in place during in reaction to Black Thurday and the day after when many banks decided to stay closed to prevent people from taking all their money out in a panic.

Originally Posted by Judecat

I always thought this law was put in place during in reaction to Black Thurday and the day after when many banks decided to stay closed to prevent people from taking all their money out in a panic.

That would make sense, I guess. But I find it interesting that this was never mentioned last year after Hurricane Ike, when most Houston banks were closed far longer than three business days - in the midst of the nation's economy suddenly deciding to freak out on top of that. It seems like if it were a federal regulation it would have at least come up somewhere in the news coverage of the economic disaster? I know they made mention of the banks being closed in Houston and other areas hit by Ike...

Interesting discussion. Googling I couldn't find an answer. Maybe I'll ask my banker next time I see him.

[Ulkomaalainen]

While the OP obviously is about the US, I just feel to add that there is no restriction on federal holidays "piling up" in Germany. Last year, "we" were closed for all these christmas days (Christmas Eve is a bank holiday here) plus the weekend without much ado (but a lot of extra work on the regular days apparently, since at least over here, the last two weeks of the year are loads of work in the sector.

[zman977]

Originally Posted by rumorbuster

That would make sense, I guess. But I find it interesting that this was never mentioned last year after Hurricane Ike, when most Houston banks were closed far longer than three business days - in the midst of the nation's economy suddenly deciding to freak out on top of that. It seems like if it were a federal regulation it would have at least come up somewhere in the news coverage of the economic disaster? I know they made mention of the banks being closed in Houston and other areas hit by Ike...

There could be an exception for natural disasters although I can't find anything either on google. I too may have to ask my bank next time I'm there.

[Radical Dory]

Originally Posted by pirateslife

I work at a bank in Texas, and have been told by managment that we cannot be closed more than three days in a row (including non-banking days, like Saturday and Sunday) due to federal regulations. We did work a shortened Christmas Eve day so that we could close that Friday. That's also why our bank never gets Black Friday off, even though Black Friday is actually one of the slowest days of the year for us. Last year my manager let us take hour and a half lunch breaks two tellers at a time so we could hit the BF sales if we wanted to. But since Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday, closing the bank that Friday is not allowed.

I don't work for a bank, but I work for a company that works with them; I've been told exactly the same thing and had similar scheduling since the company I works for wants to be available when they're open so we can do business with them.