DHAKA, Oct 2: The process of closing down the perennially loss making branches of the nationalized commercial banks (NCBs) has recently been stalled in Bangladesh thanks to pressure from political high-ups and resistance by local elites against the proposed closure.

The Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of the country, decided in March this year to close down, or merge over, 500 loss making branches of the NCBs by the end of 2002, in three phases. The deadline for completing the first phase was June 30 and the second deadline September 30 and the last was December 31 this year.

Two weeks before the deadline for the second phase was over on September 30, Finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rahman has verbally asked the NCB officials concerned not to go ahead with the programme, a highly placed source in the Ministry of Finance said.