Business houses badly affected by the ongoing political unrest would get an opportunity to reschedule their loans at less-than-required down payment and an extended time for instalment payment as bankers agreed with a Bangladesh Bank proposal at a meeting in Dhaka yesterday.
In exchange, Bangladesh Bank would relax the non-performing loan (NPL) provisioning rules for the banks.
The agreements were reached at two separate meetings of Bangladesh Bank with the CEOs of state-owned bank in one group and the CEOs of private banks in another group.
The central bank convened the meetings to devise a plan on how to support the business houses affected by the prolonged political crisis.
Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor S K Sur Chowdhury chaired both the meetings.
The exemptions for the banks and business houses would, however, be allowed going beyond the existing prudential guidelines. No official orders would be issued against the facilities, but they would be given under the mutual understanding.
S K Sur Chowdhury said only the businessmen, who were affected during the political violence, would be entitled to get the facilities on the basis of bank-client relationship. The contexts of the existing real situation and subject to the logical reason, the businessmen would get the loan reschedule facility.
“We discussed about the overall economic situation and the possible impact on the financial statements of the banks at the year end,” NCC Bank Managing Director Nurul Amin told reporters after the meeting.
The president of Association of Bankers Bangladesh (ABB) said the bankers made a presentation on the banking sector problems and the affected business sectors, including transportation, housing, SMEs and agriculture.
He said Bangladesh Bank would offer banks as much exemptions as possible so they could facilitate the businessmen.
The central bank would take final decision in this regard soon to support the banks so that they could keep their provisions, profitability and loss at tolerable levels.
He said the banks requested Bangladesh Bank for positively considering their appeal so that their balance sheets are not affected at the year end.