The Bangladesh Bank on Sunday relaxed loan rescheduling facilities for borrowers of non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs), especially Covid-affected businesses.
The new rescheduling policy will allow defaulters to repay their term loans for a period of six years for the first time, five years for the second time, and another five years for the third time.
Even defaulters might get the rescheduling facility for the fourth time following special consideration.
For the first time rescheduling, the minimum down payment will be 4% of the total arrears or 7% of the default installments, whichever amount will be the lowest.
For the second time, the minimum down payment will be 5% of the total arrears or 8% of the default installments.
For the third time, the down payment will be 6% of the total arrears or 9% of the default installments.
Earlier, the defaulters were able to regularize their loans by paying 10% to 30% of the unpaid amount as down payment.
The central bank in its Sunday circular also included some conditions to avail of the facility, which stated that the loan rescheduling or restructuring would be given six months grace period.
The borrowers, who rescheduled non-performing loans (NPLs), would become defaulters following their failure to repay after availing the rescheduling facility for the fourth time.
In a notice, it said that the cash flow for small, medium and large borrowers and firms were affected because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.
In some cases, loans cannot be rescheduled or restructured under the existing guideline.
The new guideline has been issued to help the NBFIs manage their classified loans properly and make loan repayments easy for the affected borrowers, it added.
The new rescheduling or restructuring guideline for the NBFIs came nearly two months after the central bank offered an almost similar facility for the banks.
Earlier, the repayment period for rescheduled loans could be set at a period ranging from 24 months to 48 months.
Now, the scope could be extended for a minimum of 60 months to a maximum of 72 months.
The NBFIs would also get three months to decide whether or not to approve a loan rescheduling or restructuring, up from one month in the past.