Search

Monday, June 4, 2018

Default loans soar 19.23pc

AKM Zamir Uddin



Some Tk 14,286 crore of loans defaulted in the first three months of the year, punching banks further into a corner in their uphill fight against non-performing loans.

At the end of March, the total default loans in the banking sector stood at Tk 88,589 crore, up from Tk 74,303 crore at the end of December 2017.

Of the total default loans, the six state banks alone accounted for Tk 43,685 crore, the private banks Tk 37,289 crore, the two specialised banks Tk 5,426 crore and nine foreign banks Tk 2,188 crore.

The 40 private banks though saw their default loans escalate the most in the first quarter of 2018 from the previous quarter: 26.85 percent.

The state banks' default loans increased 17.03 percent, the Bangladesh Krishi Bank and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank saw their default loans remain unchanged. Foreign banks' default loans crept up 1.57 percent in the first three months of the year.

The nonperforming loans accounted for 10.78 percent of the total outstanding loans in the banking sector, up from 9.31 percent in December last year, according to central bank statistics. “Some unscrupulous persons just looted the public funds in the name of loans from banks over the past five-six years,” said Khondker Ibrahim Khaled, a former Bangladesh Bank deputy governor.

The central bank should form a loan inquiry committee without further delays to detect the unscrupulous persons and corrupt banks' officials involved in the financial scams.

Some banks massively rescheduled their default loans in the last three to four years and those became nonperforming again, he said, while urging the BB not to reschedule the loans any further.

“The real picture of the banking sector will be clearly shown if the banks did not reschedule the loan.”

The central bank should instruct the banks to recover the loans by December of this year; otherwise, punitive measures would be taken against them, he added.

  • Courtesy: The Daily Star /June 04, 2018

No comments:

Post a Comment