AKM Zamir Uddin

Loans written off by banks escalated 42.66 percent year-on-year to Tk 1,640 crore in the first nine months of the year as lenders, awash with default loans, endeavoured to clean up their balance sheets.

Banks rescheduled a record amount of defaulted loans in the first nine months of 2019 as part of their efforts to contain bad debt and manage hefty profit, albeit artificially.

Banks will give out farm loans based on satellite data so that farmers get credit without any hassle and cultivate crops in the appropriate land and atmosphere.

It has always been the law of supply and demand that determined the interest rate at which one can borrow.

Trade deficit widened slightly in the first four months of the fiscal year when exports fell more than imports, a development that has exposed the sluggishness of the economy.

The government is going to exceed its annual limit for bank borrowing within the first half of this fiscal year due to poor revenue collection, and this could give a credit crunch for the private sector to deal with.

The central bank is set to give licence to a new non-bank financial institution (NBFI) -- a disconcerting move given that at least 10 of them are struggling to return funds to banks and customers upon maturity.

A dozen banks faced a combined provision shortfall of Tk 12,000 crore in the third quarter of 2019 in a sign that exposed their weakness to shield depositors’ funds from financial risks.

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.