Times are changing for bankers along with their time cards.

Lawrence-based Peoples Bank announced Monday that it was putting an end to the common practice of closing its bank branches on all federal holidays.

All of the bank’s locations were open Monday on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Bank officials said they also would be open on Presidents Day, Columbus Day and Veterans Day.

“We’re really just responding to our guests’ needs,” said Todd Harris, president of Peoples Bank in Lawrence. “They’ve asked us to be open on those days. For a lot of our commercial account holders, it is very important because they don’t like carrying large amounts of cash from a three-day weekend.”

Peoples is the first Lawrence bank to open all its locations on some national holidays, but at least two other banking companies have been opening select branches on most holidays for the past three years.

Capital City Bank, inside the Hy-Vee Food & Drug Store at 4000 W. Sixth St., and Capitol Federal Savings, inside the Dillons at 4701 W. Sixth St., also were open Monday.

Officials at both banks said those branches had opened for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Columbus Day and Veterans Day since they opened in 1999.

Other branches of Capitol Federal and Capital City Bank are closed on the holidays, but company officials said they kept their grocery store locations open because the grocery stores remained open.

Cary Bulis, a personal banker, works on a customer's order at Peoples Bank, Sixth Street and Wakarusa Drive. She was working Monday at the bank, which has decided to open on four holidays a year including Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Tom Miller, lead customer service associate at the Capitol Federal location, thinks the holiday hours will become a trend for the banking industry in Lawrence.

“I think they’ll all have to start doing it sooner or later,” Miller said. “Banks are like gas stations. There is one on every corner these days, so you have to do everything you can to compete.”

Harris said customers were looking for more ways to make their banking experience easier. He said the change might be similar to 10 to 15 years ago when banks began adding Saturday hours to their operations to accommodate their customers’ lifestyles.

“It is all about convenience anymore,” Harris said. “That’s why I think you will start to see more banks jumping on board. It will be interesting to see though, because Saturday hours were a really hard thing for banks to consider for a long time.”

The change doesn’t come without risks. Miller said he had been yelled at by customers on previous Martin Luther King Jr. Day holidays because they thought the bank wasn’t properly respecting the memory of King.

“We just apologize for any perception like that and assure them that we’re not meaning to be disrespectful,” Miller said. “It is just how the business is evolving.”