Staff Reporter :
Inter-bank cheque settlement and funds transfer services have been stopped due to the optical fiber line problem of the Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL).
The problem is likely to be resolved on Sunday, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) officials said.
Md Serajul Islam, Executive Director and spokesperson of the central bank, told The New Nation, “It is a technical problem. Following an earlier announcement of the bank closure till April 21 due to the ongoing lockdown, bank officials selected April 22 as next transaction day in the banking software.”
“Afterward, the cabinet instructed to keep banks open during lockdown. But the input bank officials gave could not be reverted due to technical barrier. Hopefully, the problem will be removed by Sunday,” he said.
It is learnt that inter-bank electronic cheque transaction and fund transfer activities through the central bank have been suspended since April 13 due to the disconnection of an optical fibre cable between two data centres of the BB.
The central bank issued a letter on April 13 to the banks, asking them to stop the two financial transaction services until further notice, bank officials said.
The disconnection between the two data centres-located at Motijheel and Mirpur-has stopped the function of the central bank’s Bangladesh Automated Clearing House (BATCH), which is dedicated to clear cheque and settle transactions through electronic fund transfer (EFT), an official said.
Two technology-related solution teams-Microsoft and VMware-have been working to resolve the issue since Tuesday, he said.
More than Tk 13,000 crore is settled through the two transaction systems daily.
A 7-day strict lockdown is under way across the country to curb the spread of Covid-19. All government and private offices are remaining closed as per restrictions.
But the banks are now open from 10:00am to 1:00pm to facilitate financial transactions. However, the bank authorities are allowed to conduct internal official activities until 2:30pm.
A minimal turnout of customers was seen in the city’s branches of different banks on Thursday – the second day of the lockdown.
