Bangladesh, Oct. 7 -- Millions of bank clients across Bangladesh have been plunged into severe distress after key card, ATM, and digital transaction services were abruptly suspended across 30 commercial banks for system maintenance and network migration, with users complaining of zero to no prior warning.

The massive nationwide outage-which primarily impacts automated teller machines (ATMs), Point of Sale (POS) terminals, Cash Recycling Machines (CRMs), Quick Response (QR) payments, and online transfers-began at 9pm on Sunday and is set to drag on until 12pm on October 10.

The multi-day freeze stems from a scheduled system migration of the Q-Cash network, along with routine IT infrastructure upgrades across participating institutions....