Banks to continue operating on limited scale till 23 May
The banks will run transactions from 10am to 2pm
The central bank has instructed the country's banks to continue operating on a limited scale in line with the extended lockdown guidelines enforced till 23 May to curb Covid-19 infections.
The banks will run transactions from 10am to 2pm and the bankers will stay in the office till 3.30pm to complete the post-transaction activities, said a circular issued by the Department of Offsite Supervision (DOS) of the Bangladesh Bank on Sunday.
Before Eid, the banks' transaction deadline was extended by one hour to 2pm.
Aside from the extension announcement, Sunday's circular instructed the banks to follow the guidelines previously issued on 13 April.
In that circular, the central bank said the banks' headquarters, authorised dealer branches, and district-level head offices will remain open every day except the national and weekly holidays during the movement restrictions.
Besides, the banks have to keep open one branch (if the authorised dealer branch is not open) in every two kilometres in the city corporation areas. At the upazila level, the banks will keep one branch open on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday.
The banks will keep their branches and sub-branches in the vicinity of sea, land, and airports on a limited scale and their booths in those areas for 24 hours a day. Port authorities and local administration are to take appropriate measures in enforcing health safety guidelines in these premises.
The Bangladesh Bank instructed banks to continue operations with a limited workforce and to ensure transport for bank staff.
On 22 April, the central bank said if banks are unable to arrange transportation for their staff, they are to pay a travel allowance to their staff.
The central bank also asked the banks to take preparation to ensure smooth transactions under various payment systems used by the customers.
They also instructed banks to keep enough cash in the ATM booths and at the mobile banking agent points and increased the daily withdrawal limit from ATMs from Tk50,000 to Tk1 lakh.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Bank's Financial Institutions and Markets department has directed the non-banking financial institutions to operate on a limited scale till 23 May except national and weekly holidays in compliance with the health rules.
According to the directive, the concerned branches of non-banking financial institutions will be open from 10am to 2pm to provide emergency financial services such as loan instalments and delivering cash deposits on maturity. However, they will be allowed to keep a total of two branches, one in Dhaka and one outside Dhaka.