Electronic funds transfer problem to be solved by Sunday: BB official

The electronic funds transfer (EFT) problem will be fixed by next Sunday, said a Bangladesh Bank official today.

Banks started facing the problem from 13 April.

The central bank official said, following an announcement on 7-day bank closure till 21 April due to lockdown, bank officials selected 22 April 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. 

Besides, two central bank data centres faced BTCL connection issues, which aided the problem at Bangladesh Automated Clearing House (BATCH) too, the official added. "This delayed the EFT service resumption."

He hoped that the electronic funds transfer service will resume on Sunday as concerned teams are working on it.

On 12 April, the government announced to enforce 7-day strict lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19 from 14-21 April. All government and private offices were supposed to remain closed as per restrictions. Bangladesh Bank on the same day announced bank closure during the lockdown.

However following an instruction of the Cabinet Division the next day, the central bank asked all banks to operate on a limited scale during lockdown.

Banks are now open from 10am to 1pm to facilitate financial transactions. However, the bank authorities are allowed to conduct internal official activities until 2:30pm.