The clients queued up outside different branches of commercial banks from early morning yesterday, as there would be only one banking day, Saturday, before start of a three-day Eid-ul-Azha holiday.

In the face of the pre-Eid rush, many bank branches in Dhaka had to extend banking hours and hold transactions till yesterday evening although Thursday's banking hours officially end at 2:00 PM.

"Many people get their cheques of salaries or bonus in hand at the last moment and that's why we're providing the service stretching beyond normal business hours," a busy cash section officer of IFIC Bank's Karwan Bazar branch said.

He said the branch received about 300 cheques from clients by 9:30 AM that forced the bank officials to make a special arrangement of payment to such a huge number of people without hassle.

Many people, who intended to procure sacrificial animals today (Friday), drew money from banks yesterday. Hides and skins businessmen also rushed to the banks to receive the loans approved on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha.

The huge pressure on the banks, however, had little impact on interest rate fluctuation in call money market. The rate generally hovered around 12 to 13 percent yesterday excepting a few deals at as high as 15 percent.

Yesterday's call money market was dominated by the nationalised commercial banks which lent money to the tune of Tk 460 crore to the private banks. Besides, Bangladesh Bank lent Tk 550 crore under repurchase agreement (Repo).

According to the central bank statistics, banks had excess liquidity of around Tk 8,000 crore till last week.