BB plans to develop alternative internet infrastructure

Bangladesh Bank (BB) is planning to develop an alternative internet infrastructure in order to keep the financial sector insulated and ensure smooth execution of transactions in the event of any unexpected situation, such as the recent countrywide internet outage.
The central bank shared the plan at a meeting with the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh (ABB), a platform of top officials of banks, at its headquarters yesterday.
BB Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder presided over the meeting while managing directors and CEOs of Pubali Bank, City Bank, Jamuna Bank, Eastern Bank, Bank Asia, Islami Bank Bangladesh and Mutual Trust Bank were also present.
“We have learned a lot from the recent abnormal situation,” ABB Chairman Selim RF Hussain told journalists after the meeting.
“…and we have discussed ways on how to keep banking operations unaffected in case of any difficult situation like that we had to pass through recently,” he said.

The learnings are that two forms of security have to be ensured, one for brick-and-mortar branches and the other for online banking, said Hussain, also the managing director of BRAC Bank.
“We have to make an alternative internet infrastructure…and improve broadband capability so that we can continue banking services… The good news is that Bangladesh Bank is thinking about an alternative internet infrastructure for banks,” he said.
He said the IT department of the central bank would prepare a draft plan and share the document with the banks.
Bangladesh suffered from an internet blackout for five days since July 18 amidst violence centring the public job quota reform movement.
Afterwards the government imposed a nationwide curfew and announced general holidays, which affected online and physical banking activities for three days.
Amidst the curfew, a lot of ATM booths were kept shut while many ran out of cash. As a result, people faced difficulties in withdrawing money. People were also unable to pay utility bills.
Bankers said they also discussed the trend of remittance inflow and the situation in the country’s forex market.
BB Governor Talukder suggested banks stay focused on remittance collection as the foreign exchange reserve has continued to decline, said a meeting participant.