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Bad loans rise as banks misuse relaxed rules

Rejaul Karim Byron
Default loans in banks rose 1.52 percentage points orTk 7,589 crore in the first quarter this year, compared to the quarter that ended in December last year.
The amount went up as the central bank classified loans of the banks that misused a relaxed policy introduced for borrowers affected by political turmoil last year.
On March 31, the total amount of default loans in banks was Tk 48,172 crore or 10.45 percent of the total outstanding loans, according to Bangladesh Bank statistics. On December 31 last year, the amount was Tk 40,583 crore or 8.93 percent of the total outstanding loans.
In December, the central bank relaxed rules for rescheduling and restructuring loans as businesses were affected by political unrest.
But many banks did not reschedule their loans complying with rules and so the BB classified those loans again, bank officials said.
Under the relaxed policy that expires in June, businesses were allowed to reschedule loans by fixing their down payment and time limit for repayment, and restructure loans by settingup a rational repayment period.
Banks took much of the benefit of the relaxed rules in December and were able to bring down their default loans by more than Tk 16,000 crore in the last quarter of 2013.
From December last year to March this year, the banks regularised Tk 14,765 crore, according to the central bank.
Many banks showed their bad loans as good ones so that their balance sheets look better and more profits can be given to the owners of the banks. Later BB inspections detected these irregularities and the loans were classified again.
Helal Ahmed Chowdhury, managing director of Pubali Bank, said some banks might have misused the central bank rules in rescheduling their loans which has pushed up the amount of default loans.
Another reason behind the rise in bad loans is that the banks did not monitor their loan portfolios properly after December, and did not take serious steps to realise loans, he said.
Chowdhury, however, said the default loans situation will improve by June as political and investment environment is sound now.
Khandker Ibrahim Khaled, a former deputy governor of the central bank, said the banks that showed their bad loans as good ones will lose in the long run as their default loans will rise leading to a fall in their profit.