Defaulted loans in the banking sector increased sharply in the last five years as the non-performing loans increased to 12.79 per cent of the total loans disbursed by banks as of September 30, 2013 from 10.79 per cent as of December 31, 2008, according to a BB news release. The release titled ‘2013 economy remained resilient despite political instability’ said that the defaulted loans in the banking sector had declined to 7.17 per cent as of June 30, 2012, but after which it increased to 10.03 per cent as of December 31, 2012.
According to the latest BB data, the defaulted loans in the banking sector were Tk 56,720.10 crore as of September 30, 2013 which were Tk 42,725.51 crore as of December 31, 2012.
The defaulted loans in the banking sector were Tk 22,644 crore as of December 31, 2011.
The BB in its release claimed the defaulted loans increased in the banks as the central bank had implemented loan rescheduling and classification policies in line with the international standards.
The BB has taken the policy to strengthen the banks’ asset quality so that the progressive trend in the financial sector will be continued in accordance with the financial growth, the BB said.
Besides, the existing political unrest also put an adverse impact on the business which pushed up the defaulted loans, it said.
BB officials, however, said that the defaulted loans had recently increased due mainly to a number of financial scams in different banks.
They said that the Hallmark Group-Sonali Bank scam had made huge amount of loans non-performing which ultimately hit other banks’ business.
The BB release, however, hoped that the ratio of defaulted loans to the total loans disbursed might be reached at a tolerable position at the end of this year as the central bank had recently relaxed the loan rescheduling policy for banks.
The BB relaxed the policy considering the existing political unrest.
-With New Age input
