According to a report published in a leading Bangla daily, four State-owned banks (SoBs) including Sonali, Agrani, Janata and Rupali have piled up bad loans to the tune of Tk 5,867 crore. How is it that the management of these banks have not initiated steps to recover this massive amount? We understand that some of the defaulting institutions are either closed or the owners are on the run and some have landed up in jail and here it gets interesting – cases apparently have been in progress for as long as ten years against some of the defaulters. However, it merely goes to show the loan default culture is very much alive and kicking in SoBs and we have learnt nothing from the massive financial scandals that rocked our financial system a few years ago.

The "go slow" policy for loan recovery is perhaps best exemplified by the fact that Agrani Bank has 10 defaulters owing the bank Tk 766 crore and a paltry Tk 500,000 has been recovered as of December last year. This is a clear cut example of the management style of SoBs where the public's deposits are treated with triviality and loans are given out to defaulting parties without following prudent verification methods.

How long are we going to witness the deliberate bleeding of SoBs to profit unscrupulous business entities which know full well that they can get away by not repaying banks? Has the time not arrived for such banks to take tougher measures like the confiscation of property and their sale to recover some of the money owed?