Bankers have warned of halting banking services on Friday in Kathmandu Valley if authorities fail to ensure uninterrupted movement of their staff.

The warning came after some police officials deployed in the Valley to implement restrictions barred some bank staff from reaching their offices on Thursday morning.

Chief district officers of Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur have issued prohibitory orders in the Valley for seven days, effective Wednesday midnight as part of measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

People have been barred from stepping out of home unless it is for buying medicines and other essentials while vehicular movements have been banned. Essential services, however, are allowed to operate.

As per the notice published by the district administrators, banking services should be provided online to the extent possible and for services that need physical presence of staff, banks should operate ensuring minimal number of people.

“Nepal Bankers’ Association discussed the obstructions on movement of bank staff by the police,” said Ashoke Rana, chief executive officer of Himalayan Bank. “We have agreed to halt banking services at least on Friday. If we are to provide services on Friday, there should be an assurance from the local administration that bank staff will be allowed to reach their offices.”

According to bankers, staff of almost all private banks were stopped by police at various places of the Valley.

Rana said that his staff too were stopped in several places like Kalanki, New Baneshwor, Koteshwor, Sanepa, Kamapokhari, New Road, Gwarko, Lagankhel and Pepsicola among other locations.

“The bikes our staff were riding on were taken under control and they were told to go home,” said Rana.

Narayan Bhatta, chief district officer of Lalitpur, said that the banks should designate staff that they need at offices and their names should be approved by the Nepal Rastra Bank.

“We can allow only those bank staff to move around whose names we receive from the central bank,” said Bhatta.

Even though bankers have warned of halting services on Friday, the central bank said that banks cannot take such a decision unilaterally, as banking is an essential service.

“As banking falls under the category of essential services, banks cannot halt their services,” said Gunakar Bhatta, spokesperson for the central bank. “Obstructions on the movement of bank staff should not be exaggerated as it happened due to misunderstanding in early hours on Thursday.”

He said that banking services would continue on Friday too as the central bank has already sorted the issue out with the Home Ministry.

“Designated bank staff will be able to travel freely by showing their identity cards,” said Bhatta, the central bank spokesperson.