Banking hours remain 10am to 3pm despite ‘lockdown’ extension
A circular of the central bank, issued on Sunday, stated that limited-scale transactions in banks will continue till 16 June
The Bangladesh Bank does not make any further change in banking hours, although the government has extended the ongoing restrictions for another 10 days to prevent the transmission of Covid-19 infection.
During the period, the transaction time has remained unchanged and customers will be allowed to carry out financial transactions from 10am to 3pm on regular working days.
However, the bankers have to stay in the office till 4:30pm to perform the post-transaction activities.
The central bank issued a circular in this regard on Sunday stating that limited-scale transactions in banks will continue till 16 June following the extension of the relaxed lockdown.
In the circular, the central bank's Department of Offsite Supervision stated that other directives of the circular issued on 13 April would remain in force.
Those directives had stated that banking activities would run on a limited scale every day except public and weekly holidays.
According to the schedule, the cheque transaction period of Tk5 lakh or more has been fixed from 12:00 noon to 2pm. On the other hand, for regular value cheques below Tk5 lakh, the deadline has been extended from 12.30pm to 3:30pm.
In addition, instructions have been given to keep enough money in ATM booths to avoid a cash crunch. Besides, the daily withdrawal limit from the booth has been increased from Tk50,000 to Tk1 lakh. Mobile banking agent points are also instructed to keep a sufficient amount of cash.
All authorised dealer (AD) branches, including the head office and the head branch of the bank located at the district headquarters, should be kept open.
In addition, at least one branch should be kept open every two kilometres in the city corporation area if the AD branch is not open. On the other hand, at the upazila level, one branch of each bank should be kept open on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Apart from this, branches, sub-branches and booths of the bank located in the seaport, land port and airport areas will remain open all the time. However, port and local administration will have to play an appropriate role in enforcing hygiene.
With limited manpower, banking activities should continue in compliance with the health rules.
According to the directive, the branches concerned of non-bank financial institutions will be open from 10am to 3pm to provide emergency financial services such as payment of loan installments, encashment of matured fixed deposits. However, a total of two branches can be kept open, one in Dhaka and one outside Dhaka.