Bangladesh Bank on Tuesday asked non-bank financial institutions to collect information annually from their loan recipients to verify the use of the disbursed credits and see if the recipients diverted the loan to another sector. The BB asked the NBFIs to prepare a questionnaire for their loan recipients so that they (NBFIs) would be able to ensure that their loans were being invested in the proper sectors.
The decision came from a meeting between the central bank and the NBFIs at the central bank headquarters in the capital. BB governor Atiur Rahman presided over the meeting while senior officials of the central bank and managing directors of NBFIs attended the meeting.
BB deputy governor SK Sur Chowdhury told reporters after the meeting that the central bank had taken initiative to stop the fund diversion from real sector to another sector.
The central bank asked the NBFIs to set the actual service or documentation charge against the disbursed loans to the clients.
‘The NBFIs have been demanding for long to set a fixed documentation charge. But the central bank said they will have to set the charge against the volume of credit’, he said.
At present, the NBFIs take 0.5 per cent of their loan amount between Tk 5,000 and Tk 2 lakh as documentation or service charge from their clients.
The BB governor warned the managing directors of the NBFIs at the meeting, saying that the central bank would take punitive measure if any one (NBFI) perpetrated irregularities or malpractices.
‘The governor has warned them of the central bank’s zero tolerance with regard to their compliance with the lending guidelines. The managing directors were also warned of any malpractices either by management or by sponsor directors of any NBFI,’ Sur told reporters.
He said the central bank in recent investigations found some irregularities in the NBFIs which were discussed in the meeting.
‘We discussed the issues and warned them to refrain from any further
irregularities or malpractices like taking loans by directors beyond their permissible limit, and issuing loans without proper documentation,’ the BB deputy governor said.
-With New Age input
