ATM booths have become popular across the country to facilitate transactions at the convenience of the customer. Customers feel more comfortable depositing and withdrawing cash at these booths than banks. In view of this, 13 thousand 428 ATM booths of various banks have been installed across the country till last May. Among those, 9,409 booths are in urban areas and 4,019 booths are in rural areas.
Apart from ATMs, money can also be withdrawn through CRM (Cash Recycling Machine). Many banks in the private sector of the country including BRAC, City Bank, Dhaka Bank are now leaning towards CRM instead of ATMs. Apart from withdrawing money in CRM, cash deposits are also available. Due to this, the number of CRMs is gradually increasing. At the end of last May, the number of CRMs in the country increased to 5,450. Majority of these CRMs are in urban areas; that is 3 thousand 985.
But the internal law and order situation of the country was disturbed by the rise of miscreants during the ‘governmentless’ period amidst the political change caused by the student uprising. As a result, ATMs of most banks across the country are closed due to lack of security. Customers are facing difficulties in withdrawing and depositing cash. This crisis was visible in the commercial areas of the capital. The crisis has intensified throughout the week. Bank officials say that money could not be sent to ATM booths due to inadequate security for the past few days. So, most booths don’t have money. Even many branches of the bank lack money. Many people were seen running to multiple booths to collect money.
On the condition of anonymity, a middle-ranking official of an organization that supplies money to bank ATMs said that during normal times, they supply around Tk 30 crore to ATMs of four banks. Till Thursday last, they managed to supply only 10 crore taka. That is, the company has managed to provide one-third of the required amount.
Within Dhaka, Motijheel, Paltan, Dilkusha, Fakirapool and Gulistan, Mohammadpur, Dhanmondi, Shyamoli, Kalabagan and Science Lab areas were visited, with only a handful of ATM booths open. ATM services of several banks including Mercantile Bank, Mutual Trust Bank, AB Bank, UCB Bank in these areas are available.
However, ATM booths of few banks including Dutch-Bangla Bank, City Bank, Premier Bank, BRAC Bank are open. Security personnel of most of the closed bank booths were also not available. Those who were found said that it was not possible to supply money to the booths due to lack of security.
Regarding this, Chairman of Association of Bankers Bangladesh and Managing Director of BRAC Bank Salim RF Hossain said that due to the unstable situation in the country, withdrawal of more than one lakh taka from Bangladesh Bank has been banned. He also said that most of the bank’s ATMs are provided by a third party. This third-party service has been down for several days due to insecurity. Because of this, it was not possible to provide the necessary money to the ATMs of many banks. Hopefully, this situation will improve within this week.
