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Default loans dip 15pc in 2003

REJAUL KARIM BYRON
The volume of default loans declined by 15 percent or Tk 3,643 crore in 2003 as a result of the banks' wary lending policy and writing off of bad loans.
The reforms also helped improve the portfolio health of the nationalised commercial banks (NCBs) which are still burdened with huge classified loans.
But banking experts are in doubt over any real improvement in the NCBs which tried to reduce their default loans mainly by writing off bad loans.
Sources said the banks wrote off about Tk 4,500 crore in total in 2003 calendar year.
"The image of our banks will improve internationally because of the decline in classified loans," Managing Director of Pubali Bank Khondkar Ibrahim Khaled said. "Writing off loans is an internation-
ally recognised system."
He said the private banks have made real success in reducing their bad loans.
Because of the improvement, the amount of classified loans accounted for 22 percent of the total portfolio on December 31, 2003, showing an improvement from 28 percent as on December 31, 2002.
The NCBs cut their classified portfolio by 12.40 percent as on December 31 to 29 percent, the private commercial banks (PCBs) reduced it 11 percent to 12 percent, and the development financial institutions (DFIs) by 23 percent to 47 percent.
Classified loans of foreign commercial banks (FCBs) increased to 2.68 percent, though these banks have few defaulted loans.
On December 31, 2003, the total loans of the banking sector stood at Tk 91,827 crore, of which Tk 20,319 crore were in classified amount. The
figures were Tk 85,273 crore and Tk 23,962 crore on December 31, 2002.
The NCBs reduced their classified amount by Tk 1,511 crore during the 12 months of 2003 to Tk 10,668 crore.
The PCBs reduced their classified loans by Tk 622 crore to Tk 4,861 crore on December 31 last year from Tk 5,483 crore a year ago.
The DFIs reduced their classified loans by Tk 1,434 crore to 4,727 crore on December 31, 2003 from Tk 6,161 crore on December 31, 2002.
Classified loans of FCBs increased by Tk 34 crore to Tk 171 crore as on December 31, 2003
which was Tk 137 crore one year ago.
Sources said the total classified loan of foreign commercial banks increased in 2003 due to rise in defaulted loan of two such banks.