Janata Bank has requested Tk 20,000 crore in urgent funds from the interim government and the central bank to overcome its fund crisis, maintain a normal cash flow and uphold depositor confidence.

The management body of the largest state-run bank sent a letter to the Financial Institutions Division of the finance ministry and central bank last month for the bailout package.

The bank wanted to get Tk 10,000 crore in urgent recapitalisation from the finance ministry to meet a capital shortfall and provisioning shortfall.

At the same time, it requested the central bank for Tk 10,000 crore in special liquidity support for the next five years at the bank rate, which is now at 4 percent, the bank letter showed.

Contacted, Md Mazibur Rahman, managing director of Janata Bank, told The Daily Star that the bank requested both the finance ministry and the central bank to urgently provide the funds but was yet to get the support.

The Janata Bank letter showed that currently the bank's ability to borrow from the money market has decreased because of a lack of sufficient securities, which may lead the lender to a CRR (cash reserve ratio) and SLR (Statutory Liquidity Ratio) shortfall.

As a result, the state-run bank may face fines from the central bank, which poses a risk to the image of the interim government, it said.

The bank informed the government that 61 percent of its loans defaulted and the commercial lender is now facing a liquidity crisis due to being unable to recover the loans.

It said more than 45 percent of Janata's loans are concentrated with just five large borrowers, and those borrowers have mainly taken loans from the bank in the past years without facing any limits.

Beximco Group, S Alam Group, AnonTex Group, Crescent Group and Thermex Group are the five top borrowers who defaulted.

The state-run bank currently holds the highest amount of defaulted loans in the banking sector, totalling Tk 60,489 crore as of September this year.

This amount represents 61 percent of the bank's total disbursed loans and 21.22 percent of the sector's total non-performing loans (NPLs) of Tk 284,977 crore till September this year, according to central bank data.

Beximco Group owes the bank Tk 19,507 crore, S Alam Group Tk 10,500 crore and AnonTex Group Tk 7,708 crore.