There are a total of 266,118 loan defaulters in the country as of December 2018, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal informed parliament on Thursday.
Answering a starred question of Waresat Hussain Belal MP (Netrokona-5), Kamal also revealed the list of top 20 loan defaulters, published in line with an earlier decision.
However, a number of stay orders of the High Court prevented names of some defaulters from being published, noted the finance minister.
The top 20 defaulters, as per the Credit Information Bureau of Bangladesh Bank,are: 1) Quantum Power System Limited 2) Samannaz Super Oil Ltd 3) BR Spinning Mills Limited 4) Suprov Spinning Limited 5) Rimex Footwear Ltd 6) Rising Steel Limited 7) Computer Source Limited 8) Benetex Industries Ltd 9) Max Spinning Mills 10) SA Oil Refinery Ltd 11) Rubya Vegetable Industries Ltd 12) Anowara Spinning Mills 13) Crescent Leather Products Ltd 14) Suprob Rotor Spinning Limited 15) Yasir Enterprise 16) Chowdhury Knitwears Ltd 17) Siddique Traders 18) Rupali Composite Leather Wear Ltd 19) Alppa Composite Towels Limited and 20) MM Vegetables Products Ltd.
The sum of non-performing loans (NPL) stood at Tk 939.11 billion at the end of 2018, up from Tk 743.03 billion a year ago, reports UNB citing Bangladesh Bank data.
They accounted for 10.3 per cent of the banking sector's total loans, up from 9.3 per cent in 2017.
The majority of the total amount of NPLs is still held by the country's eight state-owned commercial banks, standing at Tk 534.84 billion at the end of 2018, up just over 25 per cent year-on-year.
Yet worryingly the amount of default loans is rising faster at the private commercial banks, having ballooned by 30 per cent year-on-year to end 2018 at Tk 381.40 billion.
Against this background, Mustafa Kamal also briefed the House on the imminent launch of three new private banks - namely Bengal Bank Limited, People's Bank Limited and Citizen Bank Limited, after the central bank in a board meeting on February 17 decided to issue their licenses.
Responding to a written question of Md Nurunnabi Chowdhury MP (Bhola-3), the Finance Minister saidthere are currently 41 private commercial banks and nine foreign banks in the country, besides the state-owned commercial banks.
