I see on my desk calendar at work, several “Bank Holidays”, mainly in the UK. So, what’s all this then?
See “legal holiday”.
How blue is it up there?
Bank Holidays
‘Properly, when banks are legally closed. In 1830 Bank of England closures were limited from more than 40 to 18, and in 1834 to 4. By the Bank Holiday Act of 1871, days were again fixed for England, Wales and Ireland and with slight variations for Scotland. These Bank Holidays soon became general public holidays. Alterations have taken place from 1967.’
Source: Brewer.
Variations now occur in all four UK countries, mainly due to Saints Days etc.
I had figured as much. Is there any law governing how many days in a row the banks can close?
IIRC, banks in the US cannot be closed for more than three consecutive days (barring natural disasters, I assume).
Is this true?
In the United states, the holidays vary from state to state. They include the major holidays, but also days only observed by banks, as well as some governmental agencies.
As mentioned in an earlier post, the bank holidays were formalized in England in 1871. For the record, the days include Christmas, Boxing Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Whitmonday (day after Pentacost) and an unnamed special banking day on the first Monday of August.
This info came mostly from infoplease.com.
The Act Nostradamus quotes (or one of its decendents) will define which days are Bank Holidays in each state of the UK. As far as I can remember they are mostly either Fridays or Mondays, and things only get complicated at Easter and Christmas. Good Friday, Easter Monday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day (Dec 26th) are always Bank Holidays, so banks could be closed for four days if these appear before/after the weekend.
Regarding US law, and allowable consecutive days closed, I’ve searched the FDIC website, did some searches, gone through the index, etc. for Law, Regulations, Related Acts, and could come up with nothing regarding a maximum number allowed. Not that it doesn’t exist, but these are practically ALL the rules for the banking industry. There’s lots of them. Lots. If you care to peruse the rules and regs, here’s the site: http://www.fdic.gov. Sorry I couldn’t give you a more definitive answer.
To update the above information :- Whit-Monday holiday has now changed to Spring Bank Holiday ( last monday in May ) and the August Bank Holiday is now the last Monday in August. In addition we have May-Day Bank holiday,which is the first Monday in May,and New Year's Day. There are are proposals to have a new Bank Holiday sometime in October. Trafalger day has been suggested even though this might upset our French neighbours. Also next year we are having a one off holiday to celebrate (?) the Queen's Golden jubilee.