Bangladesh allows limited banking, stock trading hours in lockdown

The regulators have announced limited banking and stock trading hours for seven days from Wednesday as the government has rowed back on its decision to keep them closed in the weeklong coronavirus lockdown.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 13 April 2021, 11:31 AM
Updated : 13 April 2021, 02:32 PM

The banks will be open from 10am to 1pm for transaction, said Serajul Islam, a spokesperson of Bangladesh Bank.

To finish the other tasks, the banks have until 2:30pm, he said on Tuesday. They will be closed on holidays.

Trading on the stock market will continue from 10am to 12:30pm, said Rezaul Karim, a spokesperson for the Securities and Exchange Commission.

There will be no pre-opening session and a 15-minute post-closing session, he added.

Earlier, the Cabinet Division sent a letter to the principal secretary to the prime minister, and the secretaries to the Financial Institutions Division and Finance Division asking them to issue directives to ensure services at banks for special purposes amid the lockdown.

Banks in Dhaka saw a swirl of customers on Tuesday, a day before the new virus lockdown begins nationwide, as the Bangladesh Bank had earlier ordered the banks to remain closed but continue ATM and online services from Apr 14 to 21 during the lockdown to stem the surging coronavirus outbreak.

Just after the services opened at 10am, most banks struggled with a long queue of clients. The queue lengthened as the day rolled and transactions ended at 3 pm with the month of Ramadan expected to begin on Wednesday.

The government ordered a shutdown of offices and public transport during the lockdown. Factories will remain open while staples can be sold on a limited scale.