Delayed cheque clearing at Bangladesh Bank disrupts settlement

Within less than a month of disruption, the interbank cheque clearing system of the Bangladesh Bank slowed down again on Tuesday amid huge clearing pressure from clients ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.

But the central bank claimed there was no technical glitch and the number of cheques submitted for clearance exceeded the capacity.

Some banks were delaying cheque clearance for the last three days, according to clients who experienced the delay.

When contacted, a senior executive of the payment system department of the Bangladesh Bank, said they usually receive around 70,000 to 80,000cheques for clearance in a day but it was more than one lakhon Tuesday.

As a result, the server got overloaded and slowed down.

Amid this situation, the central bank is giving the permission to extend banking hours on a case-by-case basis.

The cheque clearance load was more than the capacity, causing the system to slow down, said Bangladesh Bank Spokesperson and Executive Director Serajul Islam.

The banks that have cheques awaiting clearance will get time extensions for transaction settlements, he said.

It usually takes a day to settle cheque clearance transactions through the electronic fund transfer system when transactions through real-time gross settlement happen immediately.  

Earlier on 13 April, the server system of interbank electronic cheque transaction and fund transfer activities through the Bangladesh Automated Clearing House collapsed, compelling the central bank to suspend transactions.

The Bangladesh Bank on 18 April restored the system, reflecting how weak its IT system still is even after the biggest cyber heist in 2016.