After a five-month pause, dollar rates have started to rise, prompting the central bank to question the managing directors of 13 banks about the fresh volatility of the greenback.
BB issued letters on Dec 19 and the deadline for explanation ends today
As much as 89.3 percent of the credit extended by First Security Islami Bank, when controlled by the major Awami League beneficiary S Alam Group, to AL-affiliated Sikder Group by violating banking rules and regulations has become defaulted.
Problem-ridden Padma Bank has applied to the Bangladesh Bank for Tk 1,300 crore in liquidity support to mitigate its crisis and strengthen its ability to repay depositors.
Defaulted loans at six private commercial banks nearly tripled in one year till September 2024, according to central bank data, which bankers term “alarming”.
State-run Janata Bank has been partly exempted from the Bank Companies Act-1991 so that it can lend money to Beximco Group, a loan defaulter.
Consumer financing has slowed as people are adopting a go-slow strategy for taking loans, considering the increasing trend of interest rates amid ongoing inflationary pressure.
Motijheel is losing its historic lustre as Dhaka’s commercial hub, with Gulshan, among the wealthiest neighbourhoods in the capital, stealing its thunder.
Despite suggestions for a policy rate hike from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and economists, the central bank of Bangladesh has kept unchanged the major tool of its monetary policy at 8.5 percent although inflation is running high.
Bangladesh Bank is going to unveil the monetary policy for the first half of fiscal year 2024-25 tomorrow and is expected to retain its tight monetary stance as its foremost target is to bring down the spiralling inflation.
All over the world, strict actions are taken against loan defaulters, with many countries imposing travel bans and seeking legal recourse. In Bangladesh, however, defaulters get mega-discounts.
Defaulted loans at non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) soared 38 percent to a record Tk 23,208.7 crore at the end of 2023, raising concerns over the sector’s deteriorating health.
The central bank has signalled that it would go for more tightening of the monetary policy since inflationary pressure shows no signs of cooling.
Four state-run banks in Bangladesh are finding it difficult to recoup loans from their top 20 defaulters, a failure that has worsened their financial health and squeezed their capacity further to lend.
A longstanding political issue has now evolved from a financial concern to a structural problem in Bangladesh, according to noted economist Prof Rehman Sobhan.
The financial account has turned positive after more than a year, yet it might not be good news for Bangladesh since it is the result of the revision of national data in line with IMF prescription and does not indicate improvement in the health of the economy.
The Bangladesh Bank injected $12.79 billion into banks from its reserves in the just-concluded 2023-24 fiscal year as banks combatted a severe US dollar crisis which hampered import payments.
After hovering around the $21-billion mark for the previous two fiscal years, total remittances sent home by Bangladesh’s migrant workers reached nearly $24 billion in the just concluded fiscal year of 2023-24, providing some breathing space amid the forex crunch.
