Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - Classified loans of the country’s 11 banks increased in the final quarter of 2014 despite of falling trend in non-performing loans in the banking system.
Three private commercial banks (PCBs), six foreign commercial banks (FCBs) and two development finance institutions (DFIs) have failed to reduce their volume of classified loans, according to the Bangladesh Bank (BB) statistics.
Among the 39 PCBs, the amount of classified loans of the AB Bank Limited rose to BDT 4.95 billion during the October-December period of the last calendar year from BDT 4.56 billion in the previous quarter.
The volume of classified loans of Al-Arafa Islami Bank Limited stood at BDT 6.98 billion in the Q4 from BDT 6.43 billion in Q3 while the amount of non-performing loans (NPLs) of the First Security Islami Bank Limited rose to BDT 3.40 billion from BDT 3.28 billion.
Commercial Bank of Ceylon’s NPLs reached BDT 221.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2014 from BDT 215.4 million a quarter ago while the amount of classified loans of the Woori Bank Limited rose to BDT 197 million from BDT 148.8 million.
The volume of NPLs of the HSBC rose to BDT 1.40 billion in the Q4 from BDT 1.36 billion in the previous quarter.
The National Bank of Pakistan’s classified loans rose to BDT 7.09 billion during the period under review from BDT 6.48 billion in the Q3 while amount of NPLs of theStandard Chartered Bank reached BDT 5.94 billion from BDT 5.83 billion.
The State Bank of India’s classified loans rose to BDT 1.01 billion in the Q4 from BDT 877.1 million in the previous quarter of 2014.
Currently, nine FCBs are running their business in Bangladesh.
The amount of NPLs of BASIC Bank Limited rose to BDT 63.10 billion in the Q4 from BDT 61.48 billion in Q3 while the volume of classified loans of the Bangladesh Krishi Bank reached BDT 53.73 billion from BDT 45.63 billion, the BB data showed.
The volume of overall NPLs fell by more than 12 per cent to BDT 501.56 billion in the Q4 of the last calendar year from BDT 572.91 billion in the preceding quarter.
During the Q4, the share of NPLs in the total outstanding loans of the banking system came down to 9.69 per cent from 11.60 per cent in the previous quarter.
The classified loans cover substandard, doubtful and bad/loss of total outstanding credits which stood at Tk 5,178.37 billion as on December 31.
BBN/SSR/AD-10Feb15-12:50 am (BST)