The country’s seven state-run banks held nearly 57 per cent of total defaulted loans in the banking sector as of September 30 as a significant amount of loan remained classified due to some recent banking scams and poor business environment, said Bangladesh Bank officials.
Five out of the seven state-run banks also failed to keep required provision against their disbursed loans and advances after end of the third quarter of the current year due to their lower trend in the operating profit.
The seven state-run banks are: Sonali Bank, Janata Bank, Agrani Bank, Rupali Bank, Bangladesh Krishi Bank, Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank and BASIC Bank.
The defaulted loans in the seven banks stood at Tk 32,242.03 crore, or 56.84 per cent of the total classified loan amounting to Tk 56,720.10 crore in the banking sector as of September 30.
A BB official told New Age on Thursday that the defaulted loan in the state-run banks had increased significantly in the recent period as they were compelled to classify a big amount of loan due to the scams in their banks.
The BB data showed that the classified loans in the banking sector had reached 12.79 per cent of the total outstanding loans of Tk 4,43,457.71 crore as of September 30, 2013. It was 10.03 per cent of the total outstanding loans of Tk 4,26,152.79 crore as of December 31, 2012.
Of the total classified loans in the banking sector, those of four state-owned commercial banks increased by Tk 2,659.33 crore in the first nine months of this year. The classified loans in the SCBs increased to Tk 24,174.23 crore as of September 30, 2013 from Tk 21,514.90 crore as of December 31, 2012.
Besides, the defaulted loans in BASIC Bank increased by 101.77 per cent in the third quarter as the bank had defaulted Tk 939.86 crore due to the scams. The overall defaulted loans in BASIC Bank increased to Tk 1,863.33 crore as of September 30 from Tk 923.47 crore as of June 30 of this year.
The five state-run banks which failed to maintain the provision against their loans and advances in the third quarter are Sonali Bank, Rupali Bank, Bangladesh Krishi Bank, Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank and BASIC Bank.
The provision shortfall in Sonali Bank stood at Tk 799.08 crore as of September 30, those of Rupali Bank at Tk 173.69 crore, those of BKB at Tk 1,571 crore, those of RAKUB at Tk 305.31 crore and those of BASIC Bank at Tk 303.74 crore.
The BB official said that existing sluggish business situation amid political unrest and the recent bank
scams were the key reasons for the increase in the defaulted loans in the state-run banks.
He said that that the defaulted loans in the recent months had increased due to an absence of monitoring and supervision by the banks.
The state-run banks sanctioned huge amount of loans without proper scrutiny which pushed up their defaulted loans, he said.
The state-run banks perpetrated corruption in sanctioning loans in the period, he said.
He said, ‘Political unrest was one of the major causes of the increase in the defaulted loans in the third quarter.
The businesspeople failed to repay their loans in due time due to sluggish business in June-September.’
-With New Age input
