The country’s public-private banks have been migrating to their core banking system (CBS) for several years. In this case, almost all the banks have taken two or three days. Banks have migrated to the core banking system between Thursday night and Saturday night. But this time, the private sector mutual trust bank has announced to stop all transactions for seven consecutive days for migration in the core banking system.
All transactions of the bank will be closed from 11:55 pm on October 29 to 9:30 am on November 5. During these seven days, the customer will not be able to withdraw money from any branch, not even with a card. No transaction can be done even using internet banking. Bangladesh Bank has also approved the matter in response to the application of Mutual Trust Bank. It even issued a notification yesterday informing the top executives of all the banks in the country.
In this regard, the Managing Director of Mutual Trust Bank Syed Mahbubur Rahman told, “We are bringing a radical change in the core banking system of the bank.” Therefore, all the activities of the bank will be closed from 11:55 pm on October 29 to 9:30 am on November 5. Friday and Saturday, October 30 and 31 are public holidays. As such, the bank’s transactions have been closed for four days. Earlier, Dutch-Bangla Bank had upgraded their core banking system by suspending transactions for seven days.
The managing director of Mutual Trust Bank spoke to the top executives of several banks, heads of IT departments and several technology experts in the country about the demand. Each of them has claimed that the suspension of bank transactions for seven days in a row is unprecedented. Technicians say that not only in Bangladesh, but also in no other country in the world, there is no case of closure of all activities of the bank for seven consecutive days for CBS migration.
Mohammad Ali, Additional Managing Director (AMD) of Pubali Bank, a private sector bank, said 10 hours was enough for database migration of the core banking system. “I don’t know of any bank in the country that has taken more than three days to upgrade CBS,” said the general secretary of the CTO Forum, an organization of technology officials. The main function for CBS migration is database migration. One night is enough for this. Even if all the hardware is changed along with the software, it should not take so long.
Meanwhile, no clear instructions have been received from the concerned about what will happen to the customers of Mutual Trust Bank if the banking activities are closed for seven consecutive days. Syed Mahbubur Rahman, the bank’s chief executive, said customers would be notified of the closure by sending e-mails and text messages in the days leading up to the closure.
