They are the very definition of a public holiday. But the 144 year-old tradition of banks closing to give us all a day off may be on the way out.
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and NatWest have both announced they will open 34 branches across the UK as part of a trial, “with a view to opening even more branches on future bank holidays if the trial is successful”.
Rival Barclays typically opens between 40 and 50 branches every bank holiday.
And Metro Bank said every one of its 34 branches will be open as usual.
Bank holidays have been enshrined in law since 1871 when Sir John Lubbock, a Liberal MP and banker, introduced the legislation as part of his efforts to ease the lifestyles of “the most hardly worked classes of the community”.
RBS said it was opening its busiest branches in cities including London, Edinburgh, Manchester and Newcastle.
It said there was significant demand on a bank holiday from customers who want to discuss mortgages, or other banking matters.
“Many of our customers have busy lives, but are off work on a bank holiday,” said Jane Howard, managing director of branch and private banking for RBS and NatWest.
“At a time when many people are thinking of buying a house, we’re breaking with tradition and opening our busiest branches.”
Although England and Wales have only eight public holidays, one of the world’s lowest allocations of communal days off, they tend to be viewed as a drain on the economy.
The cost of giving the British public a few collective days off work has been totalled at close to £19bn by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), which calculated in 2012 that each bank holiday sets the UK back £2.3bn in lost productivity.
While 15pc of the economy benefits from bank holidays, including pubs and restaurants, about 45pc of business suffer as a result of them, the CEBR said.
Three other banks – HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and Santander – said they had no plans to open on bank holidays.
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