B Mirror Report: A cash shortage has been reported at several Dutch-Bangla Bank ATM booths across the capital, causing inconvenience to cardholders and users of the bank’s mobile financial service, Rocket.
Visits to multiple locations in Dhaka on Monday and Tuesday revealed that a number of ATM booths were either out of cash or operating with limited services, forcing customers to search for alternative locations to withdraw money.
At the bank’s ATM booth adjacent to its Local Office on Dilkusha Road in Motijheel, the shutter was found partially closed on Tuesday morning. A security guard at the booth said the ATM had run out of cash and that officials had not yet arrived to replenish it.
“There is no money in the booth. We are asking customers to try other ATM locations,” he said.
The problem was not limited to a single location. Customers at ATM booths in Mugda and Maniknagar also reported difficulties withdrawing cash over the past two days.
Munna, a customer who visited the Mugda ATM booth on Monday afternoon, said he had already failed to withdraw money from two Dutch-Bangla Bank ATMs in Gulshan before attempting at the booth near his residence.
Another customer said he had been trying unsuccessfully for two days to withdraw cash from the Mugda booth. Without a cheque book, he said he had been forced to borrow money to meet his immediate needs.
A security guard at the Mugda ATM booth said cash shortages had occurred in the days leading up to Eid but had been resolved temporarily after the holiday. However, the problem resurfaced three to four days ago.
“Officials are not coming regularly to refill the booth with cash,” he said.
A similar situation was observed at the Maniknagar Pukurpar ATM booth on Monday evening. According to customers waiting outside, the booth had been without cash for two days. They said only funds deposited by customers were becoming available for withdrawal by others, leaving many users unable to access their money.
Some customers were reportedly waiting outside the booth in hopes that someone would make a cash deposit, allowing them to receive the deposited amount through account transfers in exchange for cash.
However, the situation appeared to improve at some locations on Tuesday. By around 12:30 pm, cash was available at ATM booths in Maniknagar Bishwaroad and Gopibagh. Security guards at both locations acknowledged that they had also experienced cash shortages in recent days but said the issue had been resolved after officials replenished the machines with sufficient funds.
Dutch-Bangla Bank had not issued any official statement on the reported ATM cash shortages as of Tuesday afternoon.
