BB asks scam-hit BASIC Bank to recover bad loans expeditiously

The central bank directed the management of the crisis-ridden BASIC Bank Limited to reduce the volume of non-performing loans (NPL) through intensifying recovery derives.
Officials said the instruction was made at a review meeting with the BASIC Bank management held in the central bank headquarters in Dhaka, where future bailout measures for the bank were discussed.      
With Deputy Governor of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) SK Sur Chowdhury in the chair, the meeting discussed different issues, including establishing good governance, for avoiding any irregularities in future, they added.
 "We've instructed the state-owned specialised bank for taking effective measures to improve their financial health immediately through expediting NPL-recovery drives," a BB senior official told the FE after the meeting.
The overall NPLs of the scam-hit bank rose to Tk 61.48 billion, as on September 30 last, from Tk 18.63 billion a year ago, BB data showed.
Earlier, the central bank had found various irregularities in the BASIC Bank in giving out loans, which include no verification of customer's creditworthiness, absence of know-your-customer (KYC) procedures, and extending loans to defaulters.
The BB investigations also detected financial irregularities involving around Tk 45 billion worth of loans in its three branches located in Gulshan, Dilkusha and Shantinagar in Dhaka between 2009 and 2013.
And the detection of lending fraud led to management shake-up of the bank.       
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