Non-performing loans (NPLs) kept building up in the country's banking sector, shooting over Tk132,000 crore, although sources said that the real burden was heavier with rescheduled and written-off loans.
Bankers and economists said that the pressure on the banking sector continued mounting with the NPLs or classified loans having increased by 64 basis points to reach the above-mentioned figure as per statistics available until the end of March.
Actual size of the stress assets in banks would be much higher than the NPL amount if the volumes of loan rescheduling and write-off were taken into account, they added.
In the first three months of this calendar year, the amount of classified loans had gone up by Tk10,964 crore, according to the latest data Bangladesh Bank (BB) released Sunday.
With this latest surge, the overall ratio of non-performing loans or classified loans stood at 8.80% of the outstanding money lent out from banks that amounts to Tk1,496,000 crore as of March.
The NPL ratio is 64-basis-point higher than that of the previous quarter (October-December) when it was calculated as 8.16% of the total lending.
In terms of category of banks, the volume of classified loans in the state-owned commercial banks (SCBs) stood at Tk57,958 crore, or 19.87% of their total outstanding.
In private commercial banks (PCBs) the figure rose to Tk65,889 crore or 5.96% of their total outstanding.
The ratio of NPL in foreign commercial banks (FCBs) is 4.90% or Tk3,042 crore while it is 12.80% (Tk4,732 crore) in the country's three state-run specialized banks.