No NBL loan to be more than Tk 10 crore
The Bangladesh Bank has imposed an amount restriction of Tk 10 crore on any loans to be sanctioned by National Bank Limited amid alleged loan irregularities and rising classified loans in NBL.
The central bank issued a letter in this connection to the bank on Sunday.
BB officials said that the central bank made the move as uncertainties over the bank’s operation arose after sudden resignation of the bank’s managing director, Md Mehmood Husain.
Mehmood stepped down from the post on January 18, citing personal reasons.
According to the BB letter, National Bank must take prior permission from the BB if the bank wants to disburse more than Tk 10 crore in a loan which has already been approved by the board.
The BB also said that NBL cannot renew old loans if clients do not pay due instalments.
NBL cannot take over loans from any other bank or financial institution.
The financial health of NBL has been deteriorating for the past two years even after the central bank appointed an observer to the bank in 2014.
The non-performing loans of National Bank surged to Tk 11,336 crore at the end of September 2022, which was Tk 5,955 crore at the end of December 2021 and Tk 6,374 crore at the end of March 2021, according to the BB data.
The amount was the highest among the private commercial banks, representing 27.46 per cent of the NBL’s total outstanding loans.
The bank faced provision shortfall of Tk 7,474 crore at the end of September 2022 due to the growing defaulted loans.
The central bank recently identified 10 weak banks and National Bank was one of them.
The BB detected weak bank on the basis of four indicators — level of non-performing loans, capital adequacy, loan-to-deposit ratio and provisioning.
Shares of NBL has been trading below the face value of Tk 10 for the past two years due to its bleak financial situation and an abnormal rise in the number of shares.
The BB in the letter said that it took the initiative for the interest of the bank’s depositors and to ensure proper implementation of a memorandum signed with the bank.
The central bank signed the memorandum of understanding with NBL on August 21, 2022 to improve the NBL’s health.
Earlier, the central bank suspended NBL’s loan disbursement amid various loan anomalies, but later it had to withdraw the restriction, BB officials said.
In January 2022, the BB fined National Bank Tk 55 lakh as it refrained from reporting the Credit Information Bureau on spending of over $10 million by the bank’s 11 credit cardholders in violation of rules.
সব খবর পেতে জয়েন করুন
Sunbd News–ক্যাপিটাল নিউজ–ক্যাপিটাল ভিউজ–স্টক নিউজ–শেয়ারবাজারের খবরা-খবর
