Reputed banks are losing the trust of people as well as their business and momentum. Broadly, some 20 clients are thought to be responsible for the poor performance of the banks. A Bangladesh Bank report says that of the default loan, 47 percent is locked by 20 leading clients.
In some banks, 81 percent of the aggregate loan has been taken by one of the twenty defaulters.
Reportedly, these people account for Tk 550 billion, which is half of the default loan.
This year, the default loan of the banks is around Tk 1162.88 billion, while the dues from the 20 defaulters is Tk 549.6 billion.
According to Bangladesh Bank information, 9 specialised banks, are all facing the risk of default loans and of the 41 private banks, 29 are similarly placed, while two of the nine foreign banks have major problems over loans.
Former governor of Bangladesh Bank, Dr Saleh Uddin Ahmed, said: “The whole banking sector is hostage to a few people and if the leading clients return some money, new applicants will get loans which will add impetus to the economy.”
Default loan would be recovered only when there’s good governance in the banks. Once there was good governance, the influential would be forced to return the money, said former deputy governor of the central bank, Khondokar Ibrahim Khaled.
Once a bank faces high default loan, it has to preserve provision at a high rate which has an adverse impact on income.
Last December, 43 percent of total default loan was from 20 defaulters and now, that stands at 47 percent.
Bangladesh Bank spokesperson and executive director, Md Sirajul Islam, said that banks had been given directives to recover the loans and for this, and every bank had set up investigating committees.
As per central bank, Janata bank has the dubious distinction of having the highest default loan at Tk 216.6 billion and Tk 140 billion is locked by 20 top defaulters. Sonali has Tk 127.47 billion, of which 28.50 percent is with defaulters while Rupali has Tk 46.26 billion as default loan, of which Tk 25 billion is with the top 20 defaulters.