The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has asked all the scheduled banks to provide information on their respective top-50 loan defaulters by June 04 next, officials have said.
The BB sent letters to all the banks on May 18 last to submit the information to the department concerned, they said.
The BB move came, as the government asked the central bank to furnish information on the top 50 loan defaulters of each of the 56 scheduled banks.
The government has taken the initiative to know the state of classified loans held by the top loan defaulters in the country's banking sector, sources concerned have said.
The information on the loan defaulters during the period from 2001 to 2014 will be submitted to the ministry concerned in a prescribed format.
The information will include names and addresses of the defaulters, the volume of total default loans, nature of the loans, the volume of interest or profit and the amounts written off or waived.
Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith sought the data on loan defaulters from the BB in April last, according to a BB official.
He said: "We will send a report to the minister to prepare a comprehensive list of top 50 loan defaulters of each bank on receipt of the data." But he declined to disclose details about the demi official letter.
"The BB has been working sincerely to reduce the volume of non-performing loans (NPLs) and the volume of the NPLs has been decreasing," a general manager of the BB said seeking anonymity. He said: "We have planned to bring down the share of NPLs in the banking sector to a satisfactory level as early as possible."
The NPL situation was being monitored closely, he added. Â
Currently, the loan defaulters-top 20 of each bank-are holding more than 50 per cent of the aggregate defaulted loans in the country's banking sector, a source concerned has said.
The classified loans increased in the first quarter (Q1) of the current calendar year mainly due to the recent political troubles, according to the BB.
The volume of NPLs rose by nearly 9.0 per cent to Tk 546.58 billion during the January-March period of this year from Tk 501.56 billion in the preceding quarter. It was Tk 572.91 billion in the Q3 of 2014, the official data showed.
However, the share of classified loans in the total outstanding loans in the country's banking sector crossed the double-digit mark in the Q1 of 2015 despite close monitoring by the central bank. Â
The share of NPLs rose to 10. 47 per cent during the period under review from 9.69 per cent three months back. It was 11.60 per cent in the Q3 of the last calendar year.
There are 56 scheduled banks in the country. They operate under full control and supervision of the BB, according to the BB official website.
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Finance boss seeks info on bank loan defaulters
Rezaul Karim | Published: May 23, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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