The actual banking day in hours

Extant

The average banking day consists of all bankers talking about how god damn annoying all the customers are.

This is true of all banks, world wide. The only difference is the swear words are in a different language.

ldavies_3

I have to agree that the cheque machine is a proper pain in the neck and there is a certain knack to feeding in either larger cheques or manual paying in slips.. once you have the knack..its a breeze!

crazyhazy

Lokolo wrote: »

No... its the customers that need the cashiers that are keeping them in the job. The people that are queueing up to do something that could be done elsewhere are just wasting time for others.

By all means I am up for keeping cashiers, but for people that actually need them. Those that need to transfer CHAPs elsewhere, business bankers that need something etc., not those that wish to deposit £100 or a £10 cheque. Thats why they have the machines. I used to hate waiting in a queue to deposit my wages (as we had it in cash originally), since the machines, I go in, put my card in, put the money in. Go home and the moneys there for me to spend (not sure if thats a good thing or not.. lol). And I can see why people get annoyed by those infront of them in the queue wishing to deposit cash but refuse to use the machines.

With the banking hours getting shorter and shorter people have to go during their breaks (hence why lunchtime is extremely busy in banks), or early in the morning before shops get busy, if they have to wait in a queue for 30minutes because of 20 people cashing money to cashiers it just annoys them.

Am puzzled by the comment that banking hours are getting shorter, when in fact the opposite is true, banks used to close at 3.30pm and have a half day on a wed, whereas now my local rbs is open till 4 or 5pm, 5.30pm on a thur and open till 12 on saturdays, so how exactly are they getting shorter?!

Also to the poster who mentioned that soon we'd have to send letters to a processing team instead of the branch, I work for rbs in a processing centre and all mail addressed to branches is sent direct to us to open.

ldavies_3

crazyhazy wrote: »

Am puzzled by the comment that banking hours are getting shorter, when in fact the opposite is true, banks used to close at 3.30pm and have a half day on a wed, whereas now my local rbs is open till 4 or 5pm, 5.30pm on a thur and open till 12 on saturdays, so how exactly are they getting shorter?!

Also to the poster who mentioned that soon we'd have to send letters to a processing team instead of the branch, I work for rbs in a processing centre and all mail addressed to branches is sent direct to us to open.

yup, all mail at HSBC is the same, sent out..unless it is addressed to a person by name and not the manager..

I also agree with banking hours actuallt getting longer. I know that I am actually sat in my office about 830 am and im lucky to be home before 730pm.

Extant

ldavies wrote: »

yup, all mail at HSBC is the same, sent out..unless it is addressed to a person by name and not the manager..

I also agree with banking hours actuallt getting longer. I know that I am actually sat in my office about 830 am and im lucky to be home before 730pm.

Woah, what? Really? What's your job role?

ldavies_3

BarclaysManager wrote: »

Woah, what? Really? What's your job role?

Sorry I didnt mean to mislead anyone... Im a dreaded bank manager...

Bank closes at 5pm then team stay until 6ish and myself about 715.. majority of my work is operations.. its easier and quicker when there is nobody about to distract me lol

Tabatha_Kitten

So, let me get this straight in my head.
All the mail is sent elsewhere. All the phone calls are answered elsewhere.
I can do a transfer, cancel a direct debit, pay a bill on the internet.
Cheques are processed elsewhere. Cash is processed elsewhere....

What do you guys in the branch actually do these days ??

ShelfStacker_3

Tabatha_Kitten wrote: »

So, let me get this straight in my head.
All the mail is sent elsewhere. All the phone calls are answered elsewhere.
I can do a transfer, cancel a direct debit, pay a bill on the internet.
Cheques are processed elsewhere. Cash is processed elsewhere....

What do you guys in the branch actually do these days ??

All of the above for people who NEED to do it in a branch, and all the people who want to do it in a branch because it makes them feel special.

Cash isn't processed elsewhere, anyway. By machine or cashier, it's done in branch.

ldavies_3

its a bit like a supermarket isnt it! i mean I dont remember anyone saying that the tin of beans on the shelf was made in a back office

MarkyMarkD

The simple answer to the original question is that it is because many of the banks have a combination of real-time systems and batch processing systems.

"Real-time" systems are used for things like ATM withdrawals, and are updated immediately to reflect money taken out - so you can't remove the same money twice - and cash paid in.

"Batch" systems are used for things like cheque clearance, DD and standing order payments, and other high-volume transactions. They are processed on a batch basis because it doesn't matter (shouldn't matter) when in the day they are processed - because the money is required to be there at close of business the previous working day.

Whilst in the "olden days" it might have been worthwhile to have staff check in every single bounced DD case whether the account had subsequently been credited with cash, it isn't considered worthwhile by most banks. And the automated transactions are all processed in the night before the branches open, so it's impossible to get the cash credited in time in any case.

If you have many batch processes to run, it's a real struggle to fit them in during the hours available. That's why they are run between midnight and (say) 8am, so that the position is correct on the real-time systems before people start using their branch or ATM or whatever.

At the end of the day there are lots of other batch processes to run - initiating all the outbound bill payments, standing orders, etc. So they can't leave checking whether the outbound payments which have already left that morning, until the evening.

It might all sound like a money-making exercise, but there are actually practical reasons why there is (for most banks) the cut-off point of close of business the previous working day.

And as someone else has posted, a DD payment is never a surprise. Rather than trying to pay the cash in on the day the payment is due, simply adjust your mind-set and recognise that the payment is due a day earlier. And/or agree an appropriate overdraft limit to cover any such payments.