The Bangladesh Bank (BB) is trying to develop its own full-fledged banking-network system to prevent service disruptions during internet outages, officials and bankers said.
As part of the plan, the central bank has initially developed an intranet and is asking commercial banks, financial institutions and mobile financial services to join it.
This would allow them to run the services even if internet communications are completely cut off.
BB Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder made the call at a meeting with top executives of several commercial banks on Thursday, according to meeting sources.
The meeting was held to assess the damage to the banking sector caused by recent violence following student protests over job quotas.
Bankers reported physical damage and mentioned the five-day nationwide internet outage that severely disrupted banking operations across the country.
Seeking anonymity, a BB official who attended the meeting said the central bank has developed a separate IT infrastructure called an intranet. Some banks have already connected to this system and were able to serve customers during the internet shutdown.
At the meeting, the central bank asked all banks, MFS providers and financial institutions to connect to the intranet to ensure uninterrupted service, the official said.
The Internet is a global collection of computer networks. It is an open network, accessible to anyone with a device and an internet connection.
In contrast, the intranet is a closed online network, only accessible to company employees. Employees use some form of login to access the company intranet.
Contacted, Selim RF Hussain, chairman of the Association of Bankers Bangladesh Limited (ABB) and managing director and chief executive officer of BRAC Bank, said the country's banking system depends heavily on the internet for online services.
The recent nationwide internet shutdown severely affected banking operations, he said. The importance of a separate infrastructure for the banking industry came up at the meeting.
He said the central bank also shared its plan for a separate communications infrastructure that will be different from the public internet.
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