Bank branches to follow new banking hours to curb infections

From Tuesday, bank branches at red zones, flagged as risky areas on the basis of Covid-19 infections and deaths, will remain closed.

If the health department, the city corporation or district authorities instruct for opening branches at the red zones, they will keep open on a limited scale with a limited number of workers from 10 am to 12.30 pm.

However, bankers have to stay at those branches till 1.30 pm for the completion of official tasks.

But if a bank's head office or principal branch is included in the red zones, it has to remain open till 4 pm so that other branches can complete their regular transactions uninterruptedly.

The Bangladesh Bank instructed all banks to follow the directives.

If Motijheel and Dilkusha areas in Dhaka city and Agrabad and Khatunganj in Chattogram  are marked as the red zones, the bank branches of those areas have to remain open for transactions from 10 am to 2 pm, and bankers have to stay at branches till 3 pm.

However, the bank branches in yellow and green zones will remain open from 10 am to 2 pm as per the instructions from the central bank, and bankers have to stay at offices till 4 pm.

Recently, the government has declared 45 areas in Dhaka city as red zones where the infection rates are high. And on Monday, the government has imposed new restrictions on movement to curb the Covid-19 spread.

After conducting a limited banking operation for more than two months, from May 31, the banks have started to follow the usual banking hour- 10 am to 4 pm.