Al-Arafah Islami Bank to suspend all services for 9 days starting Jan 30

Al-Arafah Islami Bank logo

Dhaka, Jan 25 -Al-Arafah Islami Bank (AIBL) has announced a temporary suspension of all its banking services for nine consecutive days, starting from January 30 to February 7, 2026.

The shutdown is part of a major technical upgrade to its "Core Banking System" (CBS) to ensure more secure and modern digital services for its customers.

The central bank of Bangladesh issued a notification on Sunday (January 25) granting the bank permission for this scheduled downtime.

According to the bank’s schedule, the suspension will affect various services in phases:

January 30 – February 7: All online banking services, including ATMs and Internet Banking, will remain completely suspended for the full nine days.

February 1 – February 3: All branches and sub-branches will be closed for cash transactions and physical banking.

February 5 (10:00 AM): Branches will resume limited operations, primarily for cash transactions only.

February 8: All regular and online banking services will fully resume and return to normal operations.

The bank stated that the upgrade is essential to enhance the quality of customer service and bolster transaction security in the current era of digital banking. While the total service suspension lasts nine days, the bank noted that the actual impact on branch-based banking is limited to three days, as January 30-31 are weekend holidays and February 4 is a scheduled holiday for Shab-e-Barat.

Bangladesh Bank has approved this "technical downtime" to facilitate the bank's long-term goal of providing superior Shariah-based financial services. Customers are advised to plan their urgent transactions before the shutdown begins. - UNB