The State Bank of Pakistan, along with all SBP Banking Services Corporation locations, including Public Debt Offices, will be closed on January 2 in observance of the bank holiday.
As a result, on Monday, all banks and development finance institutions (DFIs) will be closed to the general public. However, all SBP, SBPBSC, bank, and DFI officers and staff will come to work as usual.
On December 31 (Saturday), the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) authorised branches and SBP field offices will be open for an extended period of time in order to collect government revenues, duties, and taxes.
“In order to facilitate the collection of government receipts/duties/taxes, it has been decided that the field offices of SBP Banking Services Corporation (SBP-BSC) and authorised NBP branches will observe extended banking hours till 8:00pm and 10:00pm on December 30 (Friday) and December 31 (Saturday), respectively,” the central bank said last week.
National Institutional Facilitation Technologies (NIFT) was instructed by the central bank to set up a “special clearing” for the same clearing of payment instruments at 8 p.m. on December 31.
Additionally, all banks have been instructed to keep their locations open on December 31 for until long is required to allow for the specific clearing of government transactions by the NIFT.
