The branches and headquarters of the banks will be open tomorrow after a day's closure marking the UAE National Day.

The banks will be shut again on Wednesday, and the first two days of Eid Al Fitr. According to a Central Bank circular, the 47 commercial banks will close on Wednesday and the first two days of Shawwal, the Hijra month.

Bank branches nationwide were packed with customers yesterday, a day before the National Day holiday.

In Dubai, customers started lining up in front of the counters as the doors opened in the morning, a staff member of a leading bank told Gulf News.

At Emirates Bank International in Jumeirah, the crowd included traders and businessmen taking small bank notes by the bagful, and small sacks of coins apparently for the expected shopping rush for Eid Al Fitr.