DHAKA, Dec 12, 2018 (BSS) – The leaders of the Association of Bankers Bangladesh, Limited (ABB) today underscored the need for disbursing loans through proper scrutiny and also keeping the default loans at a tolerant level.
The leaders of ABB, comprised with the managing directors and CEOs of the commercial banks, said this at a press conference held at a city hotel.
The ABB leaders said that the size of the country’s economy has increased a lot over the years while Bangladesh has witnessed a marked development in GDP and per capita income.
They also stressed the need for ensuring cent percent compliance to further strengthen this banking sector.
ABB President and Dhaka Bank Managing Director Syed Mahbubur Rahman said that a part of the loans, disbursed over the years, has become default due to low price of commodities in international market as well as due to various infrastructural issues like power and gas. “But, I hope this will come down at a more tolerant level in future,”
Sonali Bank Ltd managing director Obaid-Ullah Al Masud said it is not abnormal to have default culture to some extent as there will be some defaulters out of the disbursed loans adding, “The country is now self-sufficient in food and we have moved ahead in all fields including in mobile banking and agent banking. We are moving towards industrialization from agriculture. Banking sector is playing the major role towards this achievement and change,”
Managing Director of Mutual Trust Bank Ltd Anis A. Khan said around Taka 8 lakh crore were disbursed as loans over the last 10 years where an amount of around Taka 22,500 crore could turn as bad loans. “But, now we have to take lessons from our errors, our main task will be to keep vigil so that there is no reoccurrence of any error as because the money of the bank belongs to people and it not belongs to any particular individual,” he added.
He also opined that not getting the power and gas connections to industries in due time is another reason for the rising trend of default loans.
Managing Director of Eastern Bank Ltd Ali Reza Iftekhar said that it is quite natural that there would be some risks in loan disbursement.
“But, we will have to consider our capacity. If we classify the risky loans in three categories (small, medium and large) then we can find that all banks of the country have the capacity of dealing with the small-scale risky loans. In case of medium-scale risky loans, around 70 percent banks have the capacity of dealing with such loans while in case of big-scale risky loans, all banks are not capable enough,” he added.
President and Managing Director of Bank Asia Ltd Md Arfan Ali said once upon a time around 9.61 percent of the banking services were provided free of cost, but it has now rose to 66 percent. “We are successful in almost all fields including in school banking, opening up of Taka 10 bank account and thus the banks are playing as the role model towards country’s economic development,”
At present, the number of bank accounts in the country is 8.70 crore.
Managing Directors and CEOs of different commercial banks were present on the occasion.