Top 20 loan defaulters: 1% of Tk 92,627 crore recovered from six state banks

The top 20 loan defaulters account for 63 percent of the defaulted loans in six state-owned banks, prompting the government to order specific roadmaps for recovery.

At the end of last year, the top 20 defaulters owed Tk 92,627 crore, according to the minutes of a finance ministry review meeting held last month.

The state banks could recover only Tk 562 crore from the defaulters. Rupali recovered Tk 361 crore, followed by Janata (Tk 56 crore), Agrani (Tk 31 crore), Sonali (Tk 9 crore), Bangladesh Development Bank (Tk 7 crore) and BASIC (Tk 5 crore).

Nazma Mobarek, secretary of the Financial Institutions Division, who chaired the review meeting, termed the recovery situation “highly disappointing”, The Daily Star has learnt from people involved with the proceedings.

She directed the banks’ chief executives to formulate a realistic recovery action plan.

A steel company cleared Tk 242 crore to exit Rupali Bank, or else the bank’s recovery figure would have been much less, said one of its top officials on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly on the issue.

The majority of the defaulted loans are from the Awami League times and most of the defaulters have fled the country with the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina-led government.

“How can we recover such sums from them when they are not in the country?”

And those who are still in the country made down payments to avail themselves of the central bank’s special loan rescheduling facility, he said.

Rupali is owed Tk 8,774 crore by its top 20 defaulters, Janata Tk 58,642 crore, Agrani Tk 13,907 crore, Sonali Tk 6,743 crore, BASIC Tk 2,580 crore and Bangladesh Development Bank Tk 487 crore.

Except for Sonali, the banks’ default loan rate is above 35 percent, with Janata coming in at the top with 70 percent. Sonali’s default rate is 15 percent, Rupali’s 38 percent and Agrani’s 35.52 percent.

Despite the dismal overall picture, the banks’ cash recovery against defaulted loans more than doubled to Tk 4,166 crore in 2025 thanks to special loan rescheduling opportunities provided by the BB.

“Such concentration of loans is a matter of concern,” said Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury, former chairman of Sonali Bank.

One of the main reasons for the huge volume of bad loans is the banks’ tendency to lend for large projects.

Most of the bank officials lack the capacity to properly evaluate and oversee such projects, leading to situations where borrowed funds are diverted rather than invested productively, said Chowdhury, also a former finance secretary.

Besides, many large borrowers accumulate substantial liabilities, including interest, over time, eventually exceeding their repayment capacity.

In addition, legal stay orders allow some borrowers to avoid being formally classified as defaulters, said Chowdhury, who was the 12th Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh.