Loan Defaults
Governor worried over stay orders
Asks banks to take special steps; 20 defaulters hold 50pc of total bad loans
Staff Correspondent
Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed yesterday asked the banks to take special measures to recover bad loans as the defaulters filed 1,768 writ petitions in the High Court on such loans amounting to Tk 6,445 crore.He said top 20 defaulters are holding almost 50 per cent of the total bad loan. Saying that the banks cannot recover the loans due to stay orders from the court, the governor asked the monitoring cells of banks to take up these issues seriously and hire efficient lawyers to move the cases of loan default. The governor was speaking at a discussion on "Money Loan Court Act 2003" organised by the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh (ABB) at Cirdap Auditorium of the capital. ABB Chairman M Aminuzzaman presided over the meeting. The discussion was told that total bad loans involved in suits under Money Loan Court Act 2003 amounts to Tk 16,441 crore. The nationalised commercial banks account for 49 per cent, specialised banks 21 per cent, private commercial banks 29 percent and foreign banks 0.3 per cent of the total bad loans facing writ petitions in the court. Law Minister Moudud Ahmed, speaking as the chief guest at the discussion, stressed the need for appointing special lawyers in the banks' monitoring cells to move the pending cases and make the big loan defaulters pay the loans. Terming the enactment of Money Loan Court Act 2003 as a big achievement in loan recovery, the minister said the government would now request the higher court to form a special bench for disposal of loan default cases. The BB governor also said that the scenario of defaulting loan has improved significantly after the enactment of Money Loan Court Act 2003. "But still there are problems in implementing the court judgments," he added. He said the courts delivered many judgements on loan default over the last three years but the court orders were not implemented in many cases. In this regard, the law minister assured that he would hold a meeting within 10-15 days with the home ministry, police, National Board of Revenue and others concerned to facilitate implementation of the judgments of money loan courts. The discussion was organised to find out the barriers to implementing the Money Loan Court Act 2003 and the possible solutions in a situation when a case is filed with the court against loan default and the case is stayed by court.
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