The central bank has asked state-owned Agrani Bank Limited (ABL)
to take necessary measures for improving its financial health through
expediting classified loan recovery drives, officials said.
The directive came at a meeting held at the Bangladesh Bank
(BB) Monday with BB Governor Atiur Rahman in the chair to review implementation
of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) by the ABL.
"The Agrani Bank will have to improve its situation
about default loans for strengthening its overall financial conditions," a
BB senior official told the FE after the meeting.
The BB's latest directive came against the backdrop of a
rising trend of default loans with the ABL in the recent months despite close
monitoring by the central bank.
The percentage of default loans of the ABL rose to 18.60 per
cent in September last from 12.94 per cent as of June 30 last, according to the
central bank statistics.
However, the average percentage of the banking sector's default
loans stood at 8.75 per cent in September last, up from 7.17 per cent as of
June 30 last, the BB data showed.
The amount of classified loans of ABL rose to Tk 36.15
billion in September last from Tk 25.23 billion as of June 30 last year, the BB
data showed.
The ABL has also been asked to take effective measures
concerning non-performing loans (NPLs), particularly against top 20 defaulters,
to improve their financial health, the BB official added.
The central bank will hold a meeting with state-owned Rupali
Bank Limited in this connection today (Tuesday). The BB earlier held meetings
with Sonali
Bank Limited and Janata
Bank Limited.
During the meeting, the top management of Agrani
Bank informed the BB authorities that they had already expedited the loan
recovery drive through strengthening of their recovery cells, a central banker
said.
The ABL has also been asked to prepare a strategic plan in
consultation with its board of directors within this month for implementation
of the MoU signed with the former, according to the BB officials.
The central bank earlier signed the MoU with the management
of the ABL to improve its financial performance by providing different policy
supports.
Expressing concern over the mismatch of funds, the BB
officials asked the ABL to minimise the gap between assets and liabilities
immediately through improving its treasury management.
"We've also asked the Agrani
Bank to improve its internal control to minimise risks in the future,"
another BB official said without elaborating.
The meeting also reviewed various issues, including
liquidity position, credit growth and cost of fund in line with the existing
MoU, they added.
Source:- www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com
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