Bangladesh's non-performing loans (NPLs) soared to a new high at Tk134,000 crore at the end of September.
This is 9.36% of the total outstanding loans in the banking sector.
The figure of bad loans in the banking system in the first half of the current calendar year was Tk125,000 crore, according to Bangladesh Bank statistics.
The statistics show that the NPL belonging to the state-owned commercial banks reached Tk60,501 crore, 23.04% of their total outstanding loans during the period under review while the same in the private commercial banks ballooned to Tk66,695 crore, or 6.20% of their total outstanding loans.
The overall size of NPL of specialized banks was recorded at Tk4,477 crore, 11.80% of their total outstanding loans.
The volume of the classified credits in the foreign banks reached Tk2,970 crore or 4.77% of their total outstanding loans.
Economists and bankers identified poor governance in the banking sector coupled with the culture of apathy to repay borrowed money as key factors for the leaps in NPL.
Banking sources, however, attribute such rise in the bad loans to, among others, lower loan-recovery rate and prevailing turmoil in trade and economy, especially the forex market volatility.
According to them, usually the NPL trend remains comparatively high in the first and third quarters of the calendar year.
