Spl taskforce helping Oriental Bank recover overdue loans

---

FE Report
A special taskforce has started working to augment the recovery of overdue loan portfolios from delinquent borrowers of the troubled Oriental Bank Limited.
The taskforce comprising officials from Bangladesh Army, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Anti-Corruption Commission and National Board of Revenue will provide necessary support for quick recovery of irregular loans given by the bank, concerned sources said.
An emergency meeting of the Dhaka city branch managers of the Oriental Bank was held on Thursday last at the bank's head office with its Managing Director Asaduzzaman Khan in the chair.
The meeting directed the heads of branches for taking measures to ensure effective co-ordination between the taskforce and the bank officials to derive maximum benefit.
"We have asked all branch managers to provide information to the taskforce as and when required," Asaduzzaman Khan told the FE Sunday.
Sources, however, said the taskforce will also provide support to recover the amounts siphoned off from the bank by a section of unscrupulous clients.
Few powerful shareholders, their friends and top management of the bank siphoned off Tk 5.96 billion, according to an investigation report of the central bank.
The taskforce started their functions formally Sunday and held a meeting with the officials of the Oriental Bank with a view to strengthening the recovery drives, the sources added.
The new management, appointed by the Bangladesh Bank (BB) earlier, has recovered Tk 6.65 billion as on November 22 last that includes Tk 2.22 billion from irregular accounts and Tk 4.43 billion from regular clients.
Currently, the bank has a total outstanding loan of Tk 15.85 billion of which an amount of over Tk 11.00 billion is non-performing, bank sources said.
The bank has about 5061 loan accounts of which 945 are classified with 30 branches across the country.
The Oriental Bank that faced a severe financial crisis was taken over by the central bank, which dissolved the bank's board of directors, removed its managing director, and appointed an administrator to run the bank temporarily.
The central bank has planned to complete the implementation of a restructuring scheme after installing a new management by January 25, 2008.
Under the scheme, approved by the government earlier, the paid-up capital of the bank will reach Tk 7.0 billion while the general shareholders, including its depositors, will hold Tk 3.0 billion in terms of shares. Each share will have a face value of Tk 1000.
On June 27 last, the government extended the moratorium period on certain banking activities for six more months to protect depositors' interest and facilitate its restructuring.
On January 25 last, the finance ministry imposed a six-month moratorium restricting withdrawal of cash above Tk 10,000 by the depositors. In the case of new accounts, there was no restriction on withdrawal of money during the period.