AKM Zamir Uddin

Defaulted loans surged 24 percent to Tk 116,288 crore in September compared to that in December last year, the amount being the highest in the country’s history, largely because of the central bank’s inertia to crack down on wilful defaulters.

The government’s borrowing from banks has escalated alarmingly on the back of a revenue shortfall, a development that is poised to aggravate the already tight liquidity condition in the sector.

Rural clients of agent banking are missing out on its benefits as loan disbursement amounted to less than 5 percent of the deposits collected as of September this year, highlighting lenders’ preference for deposit only.

International credit cardholders will face trouble in settling online transactions abroad as they will have to take prior approval from banks for every cross-boundary payment.

Foreign direct investment to Bangladesh surged 51 percent last fiscal year to its highest on record, riding largely on Japan Tobacco Inc’s acquisition of Akij Group’s tobacco business for $1.47 billion.

Trade deficit narrowed slightly in the first quarter of the fiscal year as both exports and imports declined, a development that can be construed as symptoms of an economic slowdown.

The central bank is set to relax the loan write-off policy once again in a space of nine months, bowing down to pressures from an influential quarter.

Non-performing loans (NPLs) in the industrial sector soared 48.58 percent at the end of last fiscal year as habitual defaulters continued to show reluctance towards repayment of their rescheduled loans.

The rising defaults on loans poses the biggest risk for the Bangladesh economy that stands to grow at a remarkable pace, said the International Monetary Fund yesterday, raising the urgency level for the government to address the banking sector’s ills.

The Bangladesh economy is tipped to clock in the third highest growth in the world in 2019 on the back of its robust exports, remittance and manufacturing sector, according to the International Monetary Fund’s latest report, which was a thumping endorsement of the country’s growth momentum.

Trade deficit narrowed slightly in the first two months of the fiscal year, helped by a decrease in both imports and exports in a sign that the country’s overall business is facing sluggishness.

Banks’ loan recovery momentum slowed down in the second quarter of 2019 as many defaulters showed unwillingness to pay back loans to enjoy the central bank’s relaxed rescheduling facility.

Anyone would balk at the idea of granting yet another rescheduling facility to a defaulter who has outstanding loans of Tk 1,168 crore since 1993 and has not shown any genuine interest or effort in paying back its loans. But the Rupali Bank board didn’t.

Undue intervention by boards has become a major problem for lenders in Bangladesh, a situation which is creating not only a lot of troubles for top management but also hurting their financial health, said Arif Khan, managing director of IDLC Finance Ltd.

The Investment Corporation of Bangladesh has sought Tk 1,000 crore in financial support from Bangladesh Bank on an “emergency basis” to inject liquidity into the ailing capital market as part of its concerted efforts to bring back investor confidence.

Loans written off by banks surged 21 percent to Tk 54,463 crore in the second quarter of the year from a quarter ago as the lenders try to clean up balance sheets and paint a rosy picture of their health.

Banks have rescheduled a record Tk 15,469 crore loans in the second quarter apparently to show on paper non-performing loans have reduced.

The government plans to form an asset management company this fiscal year to buy distressed loans off banks as part of its efforts to

Beximco Ltd got its way, yet again. The central bank went out of its way to accept Beximco’s request for rescheduling demand loan of Tk 430.05 crore, and in so doing, created a moral hazard for the banking sector.

The banking sector’s capital base strengthened on paper in the second quarter of the year after some banks were allowed to keep