Default loans of 47 banks rose to Tk 29147.67 crore at the end of the year 2011, Bangladesh Bank (BB) statistics revealed. The central bank in its latest inspection report identified the defaulters of the 47 banks and asked the respective management of the banks to accelerate the recovery drive. 

The sectors of the top defaulters are textile and clothing industry, agro-based industry, jute, power, tannery, paper mills, shipping, electrical manufacturing, tea estates, construction, and trading, according to the report.The state-owned Sonali Bank has the largest amount of default loans, which is around Tk 5705 crore.

The bank’s total loans and advances stood at Tk 31,895 crore. In percentage point ratio the default loan is 17.89 per cent of its total loans and advances.Among the specialised banks, Bangladesh Krishi Bank remains in the second place by holding default loans of Tk 3893.85 crore while that of the Bangladesh Development Bank Ltd is Tk. 1308.48 crore, and the Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank is Tk 1268.95 crore.

Among  the private banks, the default loans of National Bank Ltd. is Tk 1058.75 crore while that of ICB Islamic Bank is Tk 814 crore, Southeast Bank’s Tk 663 crore  and Uttara Bank’s Tk 606.54 crore.  On the other hand, eight foreign banks together holds default loans of around Tk 672 crore. Standard Chartered Bank remains top of the list with Tk 351.93 crore default loans while HSBC and Citi Bank NA have Tk 82.18 crore and Tk 31.11 crore respectively.

Till 31st December 2011, the banking sector’s total loans and advances stood at Tk 369,901 crore of which the amount of classified loans (CL) is Tk 22,644.16 crore.The CL of the four state-owned banks together is Tk 9170.75 crore while that of four the specilised banks (BDBL, BKB, RAKUB and BASIC Bank Ltd) is Tk 5645.27 crore.

Thirty private banks together had CL worth Tk 7202 crore and that of the eight foreign banks is Tk 626 crore.The BB data show that the CL with the public sector totals Tk 848 crore while the remaining amount is with the private sector.

The Independent/Bangladesh/ 10th March 2012