The central bank has asked all the scheduled banks to extend the working period for customers by half an hour to facilitate business activities across the country, officials said.
The banks have also been instructed to run operations on a limited scale during the ongoing countrywide restrictions on movement and public transports till May 30 to contain the spread of Covid-19 infection.
The banking transaction period has been re-fixed from 10:00 am to 2:30 pm instead of 2:00 pm earlier in each working day, according to a notification issued by the Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Sunday.
Besides, the banks have been asked to provide services on a limited scale from May 24 by keeping open their branches from 10 am to 4:00 pm instead of 3:30 pm earlier, it added.
"We've extended the banking transaction period by half an hour to facilitate business activities," a BB senior official told the FE while explaining the main objective of the notification.
On the other hand, the country's non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) have also been instructed to operate on a limited scale till 30 May except for national and weekly holidays in compliance with the health rules.
The concerned branches of NBFIs will be open from 10 am to 2:00 pm to provide emergency financial services such as receiving loan installments and delivering cash deposits on maturity, according to another notification, issued by the central bank, on the same day.
However, a total of two branches, one in Dhaka and one outside Dhaka, will be allowed to keep open, it added.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has extended share trading time by 30 minutes until 2:00 pm in line with the banking hours effective from today (Monday).
Trading on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) will be started at 10:00 am as usual and continue until 2:00 pm instead of the existing 1:30 pm, the regulator said in a statement on Sunday.
The pre-opening session will be from 9:45 am to 10:00 am and the post-closing session will be from 2:00 pm to 02:15 pm.
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