The volume of defaulted loans increased to Tk 284,977 crore (about Tk 2.85 trillion) at the end of September, with a humongous rise of bad loans by Tk 735.86 billion in the banking sector in three months.
This is the first time the information of defaulted loans became available since the fall of the government on 5 August, revealing the actual amount of the bad loans.
The money that was taken out from banks during the regime of Sheikh Hasina-led government of Bangladesh Awami League (AL) until it was ousted in the face of a student-people uprising, is now being identified as defaulted loans.
As a result, nearly 17 per cent of the loans disbursed by the banks in the country have become defaulted, which was 12.56 per cent at the end of June.
According to the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the amount of defaulted loans at that time was just over Tk 2.11 trillion.
When the Bangladesh Awami League formed the government in 2009, the amount of defaulted loans in the country was Tk 224.81 billion. Since then the bad loan has seen a steep rise in the last 15 and a half years.
The economists, for a long time, have been alleging that under the state patronage, a huge amount of the money has been looted from the banks in the name of defaulted loans and laundered abroad.
Even different types of initiatives were taken so that the banks could disburse a huge amount of money as loans to the influential people and show the amount less in the banks’ ledger books.
The central bank, the Bangladesh Bank, however, has shifted its stance from that policy.
According to the regulatory body, the role of private banks was more than the state-owned banks in the rise of defaulted loans from June to September.
The bad loans increased by Tk 236.28 billion at the state-owned banks against the amount of Tk 498.85 billion at private banks in the three months.
The six Islamic banks that were under the control of the controversial S Alam Group have started revealing the actual state of their financial conditions following the fall of the government.
Besides, former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s adviser Salman F Rahman’s Beximco Group, Bashundhara Group and S Alam and a few other large business conglomerates have become defaulted, leading to exacerbating the situation.
The people related to the banking sector, however, think the actual amount of defaulted loans is far more than the amount published.
They pointed out that the central bank could not count the loans written off and on the list of stay orders due to the court order.
Top officials of the central bank think the actual scenario would be revealed more in the coming days due to the steps the interim government has taken for reforming the banking sector.