State Bank of India (SBI) customers across India may face a long disruption in branch services between May 23 and May 28, 2026 due to a combination of weekend holidays, a proposed staff strike and Eid-ud-Adha (Bakrid) holidays announced under Reserve Bank of India (RBI) calendar and customers have been advised to complete any pending work that requires physical visit to SBI branches before May 23 as branches may remain closed for up to six days in some regions.
The closure period begins with the regular weekend holidays and SBI branches will remain closed on May 23 and May 24, 2026 as May 23 falls on a Saturday and May 24 is a Sunday and as per banking rules branches are closed on the second and fourth Saturdays and all Sundays and later after that a proposed nationwide strike by SBI employees is scheduled for May 25 and May 26, 2026 and if the strike takes place bank branch services may be affected on these two days as well.
The strike has been called by SBI staff federation which represents workmen employees across the country and the federation has raised several concerns including recruitment issues, selection of National Pension System (NPS) fund managers, outsourcing of jobs, parity-related issues within the bank, review of career progression schemes, Human Resource Management System (HRMS) concerns, and other service-related matters affecting employees.
Following the proposed strike banks are also expected to remain closed for Bakrid (Eid-ud-Adha) holidays on May 27 and May 28 depending on the region as according to RBI holiday calendar most parts of India will observe Bakrid bank holiday on May 27 while some states may observe it on May 28.
Because of this combination of weekend, strike and festival holidays SBI branch operations in many areas could remain unavailable from May 23 to May 28, 2026 however customers do not need to worry about digital services as SBI has clarified that online banking services including internet banking, mobile banking, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and ATM services will continue to work normally during this period and customers can use these services for transactions, fund transfers, balance checks and other routine banking needs without interruption.
Overall, SBI customers are being encouraged to rely on digital banking platforms during this period and complete urgent branch-related tasks before May 23 to avoid inconvenience.
