If you thought Indian bankers' worked less than their counterparts in the UK and the US and you were getting less banking hours to conduct business, you might have to think twice.

A recent study conducted by bank employees on the number of holidays enjoyed by Indian bankers vis-ą-vis foreigners show that banks in foreign countries enjoyed at least 52 extra holidays than Indian bankers.

The simple reason being banks in cities such as New York, London, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Paris, Hong Kong, Singapore remain closed on Saturdays as well as Sundays. This meant 52 extra holidays.

Bankers in Delhi get to enjoy the least number of holidays at 68 including 52 Sundays, while banks in Mumbai and Kolkata remains closed for 73 and 72 days respectively, including Sundays.

The largest number of holidays was enjoyed by bankers in Tokyo last year, like any other year at 120 which included 104 Saturdays and Sundays, and an extra 16 days of holiday for festivals and other occasions.

This was 47 days more than holidays enjoyed at Mumbai. Tokyo was followed by Hong Kong at 117. Banks in Frankfurt and Paris remained closed for the same number of days at 116 but special holiday were only 12. Others were weekends.

Bank employees in New York enjoyed around 114 days of holidays including 10 special holidays over and above the week ends.

In London bank employees got the least number of holidays at around 112. London  banks remain closed on 8 other occasions apart from Saturdays and Sundays.

"The factor that needs to be considered here, however was the number of bank strikes when normal operation of the bank were disrupted," said a management level employee of a bank.

"Last year and a couple of years before last, saw a number of major policy decisions with regards to the banking industry, one being the voluntary retirement scheme declared by almost all banks -- all of which observed strikes for at least a couple of days," he added.