How bankers are coping without the internet
The nationwide internet outage from Thursday night has meant that banking operations are at a near complete standstill and thousands of bankers are idling at home
Sohel Arman, an Assistant Vice President at a multinational bank, is spending a lazy afternoon at home on Monday, a day which was supposed to be a very busy work day for him.
Suddenly, his siesta is interrupted by a call from a particularly thorny client complaining about the cash flow issues they are facing. "Some things never change, no matter what," Arman thinks to himself with a wry smile on his face.
The nationwide internet outage from Thursday night has meant that banking operations are at a near complete standstill and thousands of bankers like Arman are idling at home.
Modern day banking operations are almost entirely dependent on the web for everything from the tiniest of transactions to massive loan disbursements. Almost all of that is now on hold.
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"There are no fund transfers, no overseas or local transactions. The customs portal is not operational either to the best of my understanding. SWIFT, the secure communication method banks use, cannot be accessed, so we are not being able to facilitate LC [Letter of Credit] transactions.
If the internet is not back soon, there will be serious implications on import and export," said a banker who works at the Operations Division of a top local bank.
As all e-transactions are completed using the internet, bankers find this blackout very challenging. Client pressure is mounting and bankers are at a loss as to what to do about it. Most bankers today have little to no idea how banks operated before the internet.
"I am getting lots of calls from clients who are worried about the situation. I am not sure how to put their mind at ease," said Sadia Afrin, a Senior Officer at a leading private bank. "My colleagues are joking about bringing out the dusty old ledgers and doing things the old fashioned way," she added on a lighter note.
Banks also rely on the internet to communicate with clients. "Previously, we sent physical letters to clients for important and formal messages. Now, it's done mostly through email and WhatsApp. Official communications have also became a headache," said Ikramul Huq, the Head of Credit at a local bank.
"The banking situation at the moment can be best described as 'wait and see'. If the banks open tomorrow without the internet, I am not sure we have a solid plan of action. If the general holidays are not extended, we will try and work with customers over the phone.
But it will be rather challenging as the whole process is quite confusing," said a Senior Vice President from a private commercial bank, preferring to stay anonymous.
Due to the disruption in banking operations businesspeople are missing export orders, not to mention shipments are being delayed, which may lead to cancellation of orders or the exporters might be forced to offer heavy discounts.
"Imports as suffering as well, which in turn will hamper exports too, since we are heavily dependent on foreign raw materials for our export goods. Future trade will be also be affected as LCs are not being opened," said Imtiaz.
"But what worries me the most is the cash flow issues that might come up. The small and medium businesses will be hit the hardest. A client with an $800 million portfolio can easily absorb a $2 million holdup, but a smaller businessman can go belly up for a much smaller amount," explained Imtiaz.
So, if general holidays end and banks reopen, how functional can they be with the internet outage?
Bankers agree unanimously, not much. "Some documents might be signed. Imported goods which have already come in might be processed using our intranet," said Arman. "We might be able to do some light paperwork like preparing memos and such, but no transactions."
ATMs and POS (Point of Sales) machines are the only banking functions still somewhat well err… functional. "I was quite happy when I found the ATM near my home functional. I really needed the money to get some groceries," said Rizwan Hakim, a Dhanmondi resident.
Banks, to their credit, have been able to keep the ATM network running. However, cash refills can be described as sporadic at best.
"Even though the internet is down across the country, our ATMs are functioning fine as they are connected through our internal server. It is just that some ATMs are not being refilled," Arup Haider, Deputy Managing Director of City Bank, told The Business Standard.
An official from a top private bank informed TBS that a new type of ATM machine has helped them keeping the service running. CRMs (Cash Recycle Machines) have helped keep the cash flowing as this machines can receive cash from users on top of coughing up money.
POS machines appear to be functional across the city. There is some delay and in many cases, it takes a couple of tries before the transaction actually goes through. Bankers recommend sticking to the ATMs and POSs of one's card issuing bank.
