Bank24.ru is going to launch its 24/7 office in Saint Petersburg on October 3, 2008. According to Kommersant Saint Petersburg’s survey, however, the area’s financial gurus feel skeptical about the office’s future.

‘This isn’t the city’s first round-the-clock office. Baltinvestbank set up an outlet like this in the summer of 2006 where exchange of currency and money orders were available at night. This office switched to the usual working hours till 8 PM in January 2007, though. The bank’s CEO Igor Kirillovikh said the currency exchange enjoyed the real 24/7 demand during the travelers’ high season but offering the service on a twenty-four-hour basis in the winter was economically inexpedient,’ Kommersant Saint Petersburg reports.

The newspaper quoted Bank Saint Petersburg’s Deputy Chairman Pavel Filimonenok, who said, ‘We work from 9 AM to 8.30 PM and our customers feel this is enough. I don’t think people are likely to come into the office at night to consult our mortgage experts or set up a deposit. We did toy with the idea of a 24/7 office, but what services are suitable for night time is not very clear.’

‘I’m not sure we need an office like this in Saint Petersburg. Our office is open on Sundays and we hardly get any customers at all as early as Saturday night,’ Gazprombank’s Saint Petersburg’s branch’s CEO Olga Dragomiretskaya was quoted saying.