Complaints among office workers spread over banks pushing for shorter business hours

As the opening hours of bank branches nationwide are increasingly likely to be delayed from 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. starting next April, concerns are growing about inconvenience for office workers. Closing time will remain at 4:00 p.m., reducing daily business hours from 7 hours to 6 hours and 30 minutes. The labor and management sides in the financial sector say this is because the spread of digital finance has reduced counter visits, and employees' commuting burden must also be taken into account. However, some point out that if business hours are shortened as well when the number of bank branches has already decreased significantly, it may become even harder to visit a bank on weekdays. According to the Korea Federation of Banks, the number of domestic bank branches stood at 5,529 at the end of June this year, down 803 from 2021. There are still services that require inperson visits, such as loan consultations, inheritance and gift transfers, and foreign exchange services, so some say that expanding mobile banking alone will not resolve the inconvenience. Experts believe that even if business hour adjustments are unavoidable, complementary measures are needed for elderly customers and those who rely heavily on facetoface financial services. As overseas banks are expanding Saturday operations and branchspecific flexible hours, establishing alternative options that can be used after work or on weekends is emerging as a task in Korea as well.