Staff Reporter:
All banks and financial institutions, as well as the country’s twin stock exchanges—the Dhaka Stock Ex-change (DSE) and the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) will remain closed for five consecutive days due to the Sharadiya Durga Puja holidays.
According to a notification issued by Bangladesh Bank, the government holiday for Durga Puja spans three days from Tuesday (October 20) through Thursday (October 22). Following this, regular weekend holidays on Friday (October 23) and Saturday (October 24) will extend the shutdown to five straight days.
To compensate for the holiday cluster, commercial banks and financial institutions remained open last Saturday (October 17) as a regular working day, operating under standard business hours following cen-tral bank instructions.
Since capital market trading is closely tied to banking operations, trading on both the DSE and CSE will also remain suspended throughout the five-day closure.
Despite the general holiday, limited banking services will remain operational in port and customs areas to maintain continuous import and export activities. Bangladesh Bank has directed branch offices and booths located at sea, land, and airports to keep essential services running.
In this regard, relevant banks have been instructed to coordinate with local administrations, port authori-ties, and customs officials to ensure seamless operations.
Earlier on October 7, the Ministry of Public Administration declared a three-day government holiday from October 20 to 22 for Durga Puja, while announcing that offices would remain open on Saturday, October 17.
