The defaulted loans in banks increased by around Tk 1,289 crore in the second quarter of this year to stand at Tk 52,309 crore at the end of June.
The defaulted loans during April-June increased slightly compared to Tk 8,293 crore rise in the previous quarter because of higher recovery of loans and write-off of classified loans, said bankers.
In the state-owned commercial banks defaulted loans decreased by Tk 551 crore during April-June but the defaulted loans in the private banks increased by Tk 1,732 crore in the period.
The defaulted or classified loans in the SCBs had soared in 2012 and continued in the first quarter of this year due to various irregularities and scams like Hall-Mark-Sonali Bank scam.
According to the central bank statistics, the defaulted loans in Agrani Bank decreased by 5.63 per cent, in Janata Bank by 1.54 per cent and in Rupali Bank by 0.30 per cent in the second quarter.
Sonali Bank’s defaulted loan, however, increased by Tk 700cr during the period.
Except the new banks, among 30 banks defaulted loans in 16 increased from 0.03 percentage point to 9.73 percentage point.
However, bad loans in 14 banks decreased from 0.08 percentage point to 1.55 percentage point.
Sonali Bank managing director Pradip Kumar Dutta told New Age that the defaulted loans in banking sector increased in the last quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013 mainly because of new loan classification system of the Bangladesh Bank.
He said that the rate of defaulted loan increase was down in the second quarter because of higher recovery of loans and write-off of classified loans.
Pradip said that his bank’s defaulted loans increased as Tk 642 crore was classified with the Bangladesh Food and Sugar Corporation.
He said that Sonali recovered Tk 2,300 crore loans in first six month of the current year whereas the total recovery was Tk 847 crore in 2012.
-With New Age input
