The 3:30 pm closing time for banks around Taiwan may soon be a thing of the past. Starting this month, selected branches of all the state-run banks have started to extend operating hours to 5 pm for the convenience of the public.

Banks are often busiest around closing time, which is 3:30 p.m. in Taiwan.

On Wednesday, eight banks with government shares, including Bank of Taiwan, Land Bank of Taiwan, Taiwan Cooperative Bank, Mega International Commercial Bank, First Commercial Bank, Hua Nan Commercial Bank,

Chang Hwa Bank, and Taiwan Business Bank began extending the operating hours of two branches each to 5 p.m.

A number of private banks began extending operating hours more than two years ago for 13 types of services, including ATM withdrawals, opening accounts, deposits, and loan applications.

The extended hours do not apply to cross-bank services like check clearing, wire transfers, and tax remittances because the Financial Information Service Center closes at 3:30 p.m.

The early closing time of banks dates back to the pre-computer era, when bank employees had to manually process every transaction before calling it a day.

Officials say that no decisions will be made on extending the operating hours of all government banks until they see whether consumers are taking advantage of the new policy.

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