The Bangladesh Electronic Funds Transfer Network (BEFTN), a national payment system, will remain open on April 01 and 02 to facilitate disbursement of the government employees' salaries and others fund transfers, officials said.
"We've decided to keep the operation of BEFTN running during the period under review with a view to facilitating the business activities in the country," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE.
The functions of Bangladesh Automated Cheque Processing Systems (BACPS) and the Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system, however, will remain suspended from March 29 to April 02, he added.
The operations of the National Payment Switch Bangladesh (NPSB), however, remain active round the clock and settlement of all transactions will be completed on April 05, according to a notification issued by the central bank on Wednesday.
Senior bankers welcomed the BB's move, saying that it will help keep the business activities running smoothly across the country.
"Inward remittances and the dividends of shares can be sent to the respective beneficiaries' account following the BB's initiative," said a senior executive of a leading private commercial bank (PCB).
On Tuesday, the central bank also asked all the scheduled banks to provide services in a limited scale from March 29 to April 02 by keeping open their branches from 10:00am to 1:30pm.
And cash transactions can be made from 10:00am to 12:00 noon each working day.
Talking to the FE, another BB official earlier said that the central bank has asked the banks to conduct banking operation in a limited scale in an effort to curb the spread of coronavirus outbreak.
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