Do High Street Banks Take The Weekend Off?

[Belly]

For the life of me I can't understand why high street banks use working days as apposed to total days. Do computers take weekends and public holidays off, just like the rest of us?

I remember years ago when working in finance I needed statements on the 7th, 14th, 21st and the last day of each month. When I approached Lloyds Bank, the nominated bank, they said that they couldn't provide those statements because those days could occur on weekends and public holidays. However, I could have statements on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd Mondays to Fridays and one at the end of the month.

On Friday I paid a cheque (remember those?) into my local bank and the lady said because it's a bank holiday weekend the funds won't be available until Wednesday, normally it would be Tuesday!

Can anyone on these forums support the bank's position and an explanation of why they do it?

Computer says No!

 

[Belly]

I suspect banks like having a weekend where they can do things like computer maintenance overnight (Barclays for example seem to try and do their maintenance that affects online banking at about 1am on a saturday or sunday), so yes computers can take the weekend off.

Traditionally it would have been because most offices and many businesses didn't open on a Saturday and basically none opened on a Sunday so why would the bank need to be open, many businesses also had a "half day" which seems to have varied by town/region, I remember some of my local shops closing at about 1pm on a Thursday I think it was.

But if I buy something from an online retailer using my debit card or withdraw cash from an ATM on a weekend and then immediately check my statement online the money will have been debited. So perhaps the computer is a bit choosey as to what work it does on the weekend?