SBP announces revises bank timings

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has revised timings for all commercial banks and microfinance institutions in the country.

According to the notification,  the new timings will be implemented effectively from Monday 13th July.

Banks will remain open from 9 AM to 5:30 PM from Monday to Thursday, with lunch and prayer break from 1:30 to 2 PM. The timings for Friday are 9 AM to 5:30 PM with lunch and prayer break from 1:00 to 2:30 PM.

“However, banks may prescribe business hours for branches, as per their business requirement subject to observance of SBP business (backing) hours for public dealings,” the statement added. 

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Moreover, the SBP has recently introduced fresh measures to facilitate the business community in order to promote long term investment.

The SBP announced to reduces markup rate on investment under SBP’s Temporary Economic Refinance Facility (TERF) to 5 percent from the previous 7 percent, and on Long Term Financing Facility for the non-textile sector to 5 percent from 6 percent to extend the benefit of the recent reductions in the policy rate.