The government decision to continue banking services within limited scale has annoyed most of the bankers as they were not offered any safety measures or special incentives.
Inadequate safety training, unavailability of hygienic goods and lack of private transportation pose risky exposure to the bankers who will provide services during the lockdown period, they said.
It claims thatfor delivering limited services around 50 percent officials arerequired.
“The decision makers didn’t consider those limitationswhile continuing banking services during the Coronavirus pandemic,” a high official of a government bank said preferring anonymity.
The doctors have lifetime hygiene knowledge, law enforcers have training on discipline and security measures but bankers don’t have any of those knowledge, the aggrieved banker said.
The government is making sure that banking services are up while the country goes into a lockdown to combat the spread of coronavirus.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has told all scheduled banks to keep open all authorized dealer (AD) branches to ensure that all electronic and digital payment modes and channels function unhindered.
It has directed all banks to coordinate with banks to ensure cash availability in ATMs.
Roster System
Most of the banks are keeping bank branches open cluster-wise and rotating staff to keep the risk of spreading the virus under check.
For example, state owned Rupali Bank Limited has adopted a cluster approach in metro, urban and semi-urban centers under which a single branch of a particular bank within a 30 km radius will remain open from 10amto 12 pm. Rural branches will remain open on alternate days.
A high official of United Commercial Bank Limited said “Officers responsible for providing basic banking services like cash deposit and withdrawal are asked to come on a rotation basis,”.
The outbreak of Covid-19 could bring the already struggling banking sector to its knees as Bangladesh enters a 10-day national lockdown. The sectors which are mostly affected are aviation, tourism, shipping, hotels, MSME, manufacturing, transport and real estate.
