Yes, as a national bank, you are permitted to be closed more than one day a week, and there are no specific notice requirements for changing your regular days of operation, although we recommend providing your regulator and your customers with advance notice of the schedule change.

Federal law requires FDIC-insured banks to notify their regulator and their customers 90 days before closing a branch, but that requirement does not apply  when “services offered at a branch are reduced, but the resulting facility remains a branch under the branch closing rules; for example, branch hours of operation are reduced.” We are not aware of any other federal requirements or restrictions regarding days or hours of operation.

The Illinois Promissory Note and Bank Holiday Act (the “Act”) limits regular bank closings to one day a week and imposes several requirements before regularly closing on any particular day. However, in our view, the Act does not apply to national banks. State officials may not exercise visitorial powers with respect to national banks (with very limited exceptions). Visitorial powers include requiring the filings of notices. Consequently, the Act, which requires notice to the IDFPR, would constitute an impermissible exercise of visitorial powers if it were applied to national banks.

We also note that closing your bank for an additional day each week may raise issues under the Community Reinvestment Act. One factor in your service performance rating is whether your services, “including, where appropriate, business hours,” vary in a way that inconveniences customers in your assessment area. Therefore, it would be prudent to document your reasons for making the change and provide your regulator and customers advance notice, although you are not required to do so.

For resources related to our guidance, please see:

• 12 USC 1831r–1 (Requires an insured depository institution that proposes to close any branch to submit a notice of the proposed closing to the appropriate Federal banking agency and to customers at least 90 days before the proposed for the closing)

• Comptroller’s Licensing Manual – Branch Closings, page 1 (April 2003) (“Advance branch closing notices are not required when: . . . Services offered at a branch are reduced, but the resulting facility remains a branch under the branch closing rules; for example, branch hours of operation are reduced.”)

• Illinois Promissory Note and Bank Holiday Act, 205 ILCS 630/17(b)  (Requires all banks doing business in Illinois that wish to select any one day of the week to remain closed on a regular basis to adopt a board resolution, publish notice in a newspaper for three weeks, and notify the Commissioner of Banks and Real Estate) 

• 12 CFR 7.4000 (“Under 12 U.S.C. 484, only the OCC or an authorized representative of the OCC may exercise visitorial powers with respect to national banks. State officials may not exercise visitorial powers with respect to national banks, such as conducting examinations, inspecting or requiring the production of books or records of national banks, or prosecuting enforcement actions, except in limited circumstances authorized by federal law.”)

• 12 USC 484(a) (“No national bank shall be subject to any visitorial powers except as authorized by Federal law, vested in the courts of justice or such as shall be, or have been exercised or directed by Congress or by either House thereof or by any committee of Congress or of either House duly authorized.”)

• Community Reinvestment Act, Appendix A to Part 25 – Ratings, Part (b)(3)(i)(C) (“The OCC rates a bank’s service performance ‘high satisfactory’ if, in general, the bank demonstrates: . . . Its services (including, where appropriate, business hours) do not vary in a way that inconveniences its assessment area(s), particularly low- and moderate-income geographies and low- and moderate-income individuals . . .”)