Mid-year Thai bank holiday abolished

By Teeranai Charuvastra, Staff Reporter

 

People line up at a bank in Bangkok to buy commemorative banknotes in memory of King Rama IX in September 2017.

 

BANGKOK — For as long as Thais can remember, bank branches, public or private, always close in the middle of the year on July 1 to do some bookkeeping. That tradition will end next year.

 

The central bank announced the abolition of the mid-year holiday in a statement issued Tuesday, citing advances in technology that no longer require financial institutions to halt operations for a day.

 

Full Story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/business/2018/09/05/mid-year-thai-bank-holiday-abolished/

 

-- © Copyright Khaosod English 2018-9-5

One gone, zillion to go. I don't understand why in this day and age remittances from abroad using the swift system can't be processed during public holidays. Is there a granny somewhere in BoT's offices checking every incoming transaction with a monocle or what?

It's a tiny start.  Way too many Thai holidays.

9 minutes ago, newnative said:

It's a tiny start.  Way too many Thai holidays.

Really? Easy to say if you're not working here. A lot of Thai employees where I work in the private sector get between 5 and 10 days annual leave per year. The first year they get none. Some of them work Saturday as well. So combined days annual leave and public holidays they might get around 15-20 days off per year (many companies don't observe every public holiday). That's way too many? 

 

For comparison, in the UK I was getting 28 days annual leave plus around 8 public holidays. That's 36. Friends of mine were getting 40. 

16 hours ago, DrTuner said:

One gone, zillion to go. I don't understand why in this day and age remittances from abroad using the swift system can't be processed during public holidays. Is there a granny somewhere in BoT's offices checking every incoming transaction with a monocle or what?

Or weekend for that matter?

I don't understand why in this day and age it still takes 3 working days to clear international transactions to a persons account, if it's sent on a weekend with a public holidays attached it can take 5 or 6 days to clear to the ATM/account?

Unless it's just a way of holding the money for interest purposes?

Songkran is the worst public holiday for the banking system.

1 hour ago, hotchilli said:

Unless it's just a way of holding the money for interest purposes?

That is exactly what they do.  Use Western Union or TransferWise instead.  Both have instantaneous transfers.  TransferWise is peer2peer which means less commission is paid and your money stays in your country because they swap between accounts and they have a higher exchange rate than WU.  WU is OK but have found TransferWise to be better.  Also, in Canada, to use WU there is a maximum transfer of CAD999.99c for each transaction.  That is OK but if a large amount is being sent then several transactions must take place.  That does not happen with TransferWise because no money leaves the country, as explained.

 

'nuf sed

When I was in the US Air Force I got 30 days leave, not necessarily where I wanted.

6 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Or weekend for that matter?

I don't understand why in this day and age it still takes 3 working days to clear international transactions to a persons account, if it's sent on a weekend with a public holidays attached it can take 5 or 6 days to clear to the ATM/account?

Unless it's just a way of holding the money for interest purposes?

I use Transferwise from UK to Thai bank. Takes at max. 24 hours. or Monday morning if done on a Friday. Computers do not have bank ho;lidays