The defaulted loans at the country’s 57 commercial banks have hit a record high of Tk 893 billion.
According to the latest figures by Bangladesh Bank, defaulted loans have stood at Tk 893.4 billion until June this year, up from 885.89 billion in March this year.
Defaulted loans significantly dropped in late last year as banks had rescheduled a large amount of loans as well stepped up recovery efforts.
The default loans stood at Tk 743.03 billion till December, 2017, which rose alarmingly in the first half of this year.
Analysts attributed the drop in defaulted loans in late last year to the banks’ ‘strategies’, which include rescheduling and propping up recovery, ahead of the annual audit report in December.
But as the new year, starts the process slowed down due to the double-digit lending rate.
Former caretaker government adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam blamed lack of governance in the financial sector behind the rise in default loans.
“Not only the rescheduled and restructured loans, but others loans have also turned into bad debts. The rate of defaulted loans is alarming in the state-owned as well as private banks” he told Bangla Tribune.
Central bank data says, around 10.41 percent of the disbursed loans have turned out to be bad debts as of June this year, up from 9.31 percent in December last year.
In six months (Jan-Jun), defaulted loans have increased by Tk 150.37 billion.
The amount of defaulted loans in the six state-owned banks during the same period stood at Tk 428.52 billion and for the nine foreign banks, Tk 227.1 billion.