Defaulted loans crept up last year despite a record amount of loan rescheduling by banks.

Non-performing loans (NPLS) stood at Tk 94,313 crore as of December last year, up 0.42 percent year-on-year.

The central bank's inefficiency to tackle habitual defaulters is a great reason behind the rising trend of classified loans, experts said.

Although the increased amount of NPLs is not remarkable, this is unexpected as banks rescheduled a large amount of defaulted loans, they said.

Last year, defaulted loans amounting to Tk 50,186 crore were regularised, the highest on record for a single year, according to Bangladesh Bank data.

Of the sum, Tk 18,584 crore was regularised till December under the central bank's relaxed policy announced on May 16 last year, allowing defaulters to reschedule their classified loans with a down payment of only 2 percent of the outstanding amount instead of the existing 10-50 percent.


NPLs could have been tackled unless a good amount of the rescheduled loans did not became defaulted again, said Fahmida Khatun, executive director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue.

In fact, Tk 13,284 crore of the soured loans, regularised last year, has become defaulted, shows the BB data.

This means nearly one-fourth of the rescheduled loans has turned bad again.