Loan disbursement of the state-owned Sonali Bank dropped by 8.8% to Tk33,534 crore in June this year compared to same period of the last year as the bank has so far failed to disburse expected-level of loans among its clients.

The disbursement is Tk3,236 crore lower than Tk36,771 crore released in the first half of last year.

The bank published notices in the newspapers offering loans, but yielded no result so far, Sonali Bank Managing Director Prodip Kumar Dutta told a press conference at the head office of Sonali Bank in the capital yesterday.

“We are reminding the branch managers, heads of regions and general managers to enhance the loan disbursement,” he said.

“We have set the loan disbursement target for the branches and the performance of the branches is being strongly monitored by the head office.”

The adjusted loan growth rate of Sonali Bank was negative by 7.07% in the last year against the target limit of 8% set by Bangladesh Bank.

The total loan growth of the banks decreased by 11.67% or Tk3,963 crore in the last year, according to the Bangladesh Bank data.

The credit ceiling of Sonali Bank has been set at Tk1,328 crore for the year 2014, which is 6% of the adjusted loan status of Tk22,133 crore in 2013.

The bank won’t be able to achieve its loan disbursement target as the bank is also going through a financial crisis, said a senior executive of Bangladesh Bank.

The bank is yet to settle over 1,700 accepted bills with other banks, relating to Hallmark scam as the state-owned bank is suffering find crisis, he said.

Moreover, the bank is suffering from image crisis due to the Hallmark loan scam, he added.

“Though the bank suffered from capital shortfall of Tk278.43 crore in March this year, which was Tk821 crore in 2013, we will be able to meet the shortfall at the end of this year,’’ however, hoped managing director of Sonali Bank.