Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The central bank of Bangladesh has so far approved proposals of 10 business groups for restructuring their large loans worth BDT 140.48 billion, officials said.
A total of 22 commercial banks had earlier submitted the proposals to the Bangladesh Bank (BB), seeking approval to large loan restructuring on behalf of their clients.
The business groups which have received approval for restructuring their large loans include Beximco, Jamuna, Thermax, Sikder, Abdul Monem, Keya, SA (SA Oil Refinery and Samanaz), BR Spinning, AnonTex and Ratanpur.
Of them, a portion of Agrani Bank loan that the Beximco Group had sought to be restructured is still being scrutinised by the committee of the central bank.
The committee is also scrutinising another large loan proposal worth Tk 5.22 billion of Rising Steel Ltd, a BB senior official told BBN in Dhaka.
He also said the central bank has given approval for restructuring the large loans after scrutinising the proposals by a high-powered committee of the BB.
The central bank earlier formed a six-member inter-departmental committee to go through the terms and conditions, set for restructuring the loans properly.
A review meeting of the large loan restructuring scrutiny committee was held at the central bank headquarters in Dhaka on Sunday with its chief and BB Executive Director Mohammad Naushad Ali Chowdhury in the chair.
The central bank earlier determined large borrowers by the size of their outstanding loan portfolios with BDT 5.0 billion as the baseline.
The BB board of directors approved the policy on January 27 last, allowing large loan rescheduling, only if the business entities are hit by global or domestic shocks.
Under the existing large-loan-restructuring policy, the borrowers are allowed to repay their restructured term loans for maximum 12 years while both restructured continuous and demand loans will be cleared within maximum six years.
BBN/SSR/AD