Digital services of 30 banks restored

Card, automated teller machine (ATM), point-of-sale (POS), internet banking and internet banking fund transfer services under the National Payment Switch Bangladesh (NPSB) of around 30 banks resumed on October 6 night after being disrupted since October 4, following a sudden system upgrade by Q-Cash, an electronic payment network used by the lenders.

Several banks have since informed customers, through notices on their Facebook pages, text messages and websites, that the services are fully operational.

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The affected banks are Agrani Bank, Bank Alfalah, BASIC Bank, Bank Asia, Bangladesh Commerce Bank, Bangladesh Krishi Bank, Bengal Commercial Bank, Community Bank, First Security Islami Bank, ICB Islamic Bank, Janata Bank, Jamuna Bank, Midland Bank, Meghna Bank, Mercantile Bank, Modhumoti Bank, National Bank, NRB Commercial Bank, NRB Global Bank, National Credit and Commerce Bank, One Bank, Rupali Bank, Shahjalal Islami Bank, Shimanto Bank, Sonali Bank, Social Islami Bank, South Bangla Agriculture and Commerce Bank, Trust Bank, Union Bank and Uttara Bank.

Senior officials of several banks said Q-Cash had not given them enough notice to inform customers in advance. Some customers received text messages only hours before or after the upgrade began.

The upgrade began on the night of October 4 and is scheduled to continue until noon on October 10.

On October 6, Bangladesh Bank (BB) summoned IT Consultants Limited, the operator of Q-Cash, and directed its management to resume card-related services promptly.

Arief Hossain Khan, executive director and spokesperson of BB, told The Daily Star that services were restored on the night of October 6 and the issue had been resolved.

"We called in Q-Cash's management, and they told us it was an accident. Their server migration had been scheduled for October 28, but because of a fault in the server, they had to begin the migration immediately. If they hadn't, a major disaster could have occurred. Even so, we have asked them for a written explanation," he said.

A senior BB official, who requested anonymity, alleged that the disruption stemmed from non-payment of dues to Compass Plus, the original equipment manufacturer of the system, and from poorly planned system activities.

Asked whether the incident was linked to a dispute with a foreign company, the BB spokesperson said, "We have no knowledge of this."

Kazi Saifuddin Munir, managing director and CEO of IT Consultants, did not respond to phone calls and WhatsApp messages from The Daily Star until the filing of this report.

Earlier, on October 5, he had told The Daily Star that the migration had been scheduled for October 28.

"Accordingly, we sent letters and verbal communication to all our banks and BB. However, due to unavoidable circumstances, we had no option but to proceed immediately with full migration to the new system," he said.

He added that the company had provided the same service to banks for 24 years without any incident and that it was trying to go live on October 6 and make all services available by the evening of October 8.