Md Mehedi Hasan

Around three and a half months after Bangladesh Bank announced guidelines for a loan scheme to reopen closed factories, not a single taka has been disbursed under the Tk 20,000 crore programme.

A sharp rise in Bangla QR transactions since July has raised concerns among industry insiders, including mobile financial service providers, who suspect that a portion of the surge may be driven by fake or suspicious payments rather than genuine purchases.

Ten banks accounted for more than 72 percent of the banking sector’s total non-performing loans, according to the central bank, showing that the country’s 61 commercial lenders are not equally responsible for the sector’s financial distress.

Ahsanul Haque Tanvir, a customer of First Security Islami Bank’s (FSIBL) Topkhana Road branch, repeatedly visited the bank over the past one and a half years to withdraw his deposit of Tk 48 lakh, but in vain. On Monday, he finally withdrew the full amount from his savings account.

An economy cannot maintain credit discipline when offenders are repeatedly rewarded rather than punished. When such rewards become the norm, borrowers start to feel less obligated to repay.

Bad loans in the country’s banking sector have surpassed Tk 6 lakh crore once again despite a series of policy support measures for defaulted borrowers, indicating the fragile state of the sector.

People are losing hard-earned cash to online scams offering cheap loans and quick investment returns

Authorities have stepped up efforts to recover assets worth $2.5 billion allegedly siphoned abroad by 42 major loan defaulters, in addition to those identified in 11 priority cases.