Online banking, ATM and digital payment services including money transfers and utility bill payments continued to be disrupted yesterday amid the ongoing internet blackout across the country since Thursday.

Robiul Islam, who has an account with EXIM Bank, wanted to withdraw money as he urgently needed cash but failed to do so from numerous ATM booths in different areas of Dhaka.

He finally managed to withdraw money from an ATM booth of Mutual Trust Bank at Panthapath.

Most ATM booths of different banks were shut down, while those that were open had no money.

— Robiul Islam A bank account holder

"Most ATM booths of different banks were shut down, while those that were open had no money," he told this correspondent.

Contacted, Mohammad Feroz Hossen, managing director of EXIM Bank, said they loaded all of their ATM booths with money before the ongoing unrest began.

While all of their ATM booths remained open since then, there is a possibility that some of the booths ran out of cash because the bank was facing difficulties to load money to the booths amid the unrest, he added.

Faria Anjum, a student, wanted to use her bank card for buying some urgent medicines for her mother at Popular Diagnostic Centre in Shantinagar due to shortage of cash in hand.

But she was unable to do so as the POS (point of sale) machine at the diagnostic centre could not run without internet.

"There should be no problem in withdrawing cash if ATM booths have adequate funds. However, ATM booths in some areas are vulnerable to risk of attacks, so those have been kept shut as a precautionary measure," said Syed Mahbubur Rahman, managing director of Mutual Trust Bank.

Saiful Islam, executive director and spokesperson of Bangladesh Bank, said the central bank's systems were operating well and there were no problems at their end.

However, online banking transactions have not been taking place amid disruption to data services, he added.

The transfer of bandwidth was suspended to internet service providers, while carriers were ordered to shut down mobile data services since Thursday amid the ongoing violence centring the quota reform protests.

Broadband and mobile network operators said this decision was taken by the government in view of the current situation, adding that they were dependent on the directives of the authorities concerned to resume the services.