A file photo shows the headquarters of Sonali Bank at Motijheel in Dhaka. Bangladesh Bank on Sunday asked Sonali Bank to raise fund maintaining its minimum capital requirement as the bank suffered a capital deficit of Tk 895 crore as of December 31, 2013

Bangladesh Bank on Sunday asked Sonali Bank to raise fund maintaining its minimum capital requirement as the bank suffered a capital deficit of Tk 895 crore as of December 31, 2013.
The BB also asked the four state-owned banks — Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali — to speed up their monitoring on the loans which had recently been rescheduled from the defaulted position considering the political unrest.
The central bank came up with the directives at a meeting, presided over by BB deputy governor Abu Hena Mohd Razee Hassan, at its headquarters in the capital.
The meeting was held with the SCBs under the memorandum of understanding between the central bank and the SCBs.
The managing directors of the SCBs and senior officials of the BB attended the meeting.
A BB official told New Age on Sunday that it was a frustrating situation for Sonali Bank that it had plunged again in a capital shortfall despite a recent recapitalisation of Tk 1,995 crore made by the government.
‘Sonali Bank earlier showed that it had a capital surplus of Tk 249 crore as of December 31, 2013. But, the bank’s audited report showed that the bank suffered a capital shortfall of Tk 895 crore as of December 31, 2013’, he said.
The BB data showed that the minimum capital requirement of the bank stood at Tk 3,723 crore as of December 31, 2013 while it could maintain Tk 2,828 crore.
Under the circumstances, the capital adequacy ratio of the bank stood at 7.59 per cent against the required 10 per cent in line with the BASEL-II recommendations.
Against the backdrop, the BB asked the bank to raise its required capital in the quickest possible time by earning profit.
The other three state-owned banks, however, were able to maintain their required capital in the period.
The BB in the meeting criticised Sonali Bank and Agrani Bank as they failed to achieve the recovery of the classified loan from the top 20 defaulters, the BB official said.
Janata and Rupali were the higher achievers, reaching 117 per cent and 217 per cent of their targets respectively for retrieving defaulted loans from the top 20 defaulters.
In comparison, Sonali and Agrani performed poorly, managing 37 per cent and 42 per cent of their targets respectively.
The central bank set a new recovery target of classified loan from the top 20 defaulters in 2014.
The BB asked Sonali Bank to recover Tk 315 crore from the top 20 defaulters, while the target was Tk 120 crore for Janata Bank, Tk 150 crore for Agrani Bank and Tk 38 crore for Rupali Bank.
The BB asked the SCBs to gear up their monitoring on the rescheduled loans considering the recent political unrest so that the loans would not be defaulted further, the BB official said.
The central bank gave directives to the SCBs to follow their respective credit growth set by the central bank, he said.
The BB will take punitive measures against the banks if they fail to comply with the BB directives, he said.
The BB asked the SCBs to maintain the Internal Control Compliance guideline so that the banks could avoid the financial crime and forgery.