Staff Reporter :
Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Wednesday said that massive loan scams in Sonali and BASIC Bank have eroded their financial position and they are now struggling to regain their previous position.
“These state-owned banks have experienced several financial scandals in the recent past. Several robbery incidents have taken place in the Sonali Bank. Some high officials of the BASIC Bank also looted huge money from it,” Muhith said these while addressing the Annual General Meeting (AGM)-2016 of Janata Bank Ltd.
The AGM was held at Hotel Sonargaon in the city.
The Finance Minister added that Sonali and BASIC banks have been immersed in scams and scandal, so, it will take time for these state-owned banks to regain their previous positions.
“The government is closely monitoring the activities of the public banks so that they could improve their financial positions. It has already entered into an agreement with them back to strengthen the positions of these banks,” he added.
He, however, said that Janata Bank is relatively in a better position among other state-owned commercial banks.
Dismissing the allegation that Bangladesh has more than enough commercial banks, the Minister said the number is not excess in terms of the number of the population.
“Many people are still remaining out of banking service despite having around 9,000 bank branches across the country,” said Muhith, adding, “Some 13 crore people out of 16 crore are economically solvent and live above the poverty line. This led to increase of demands for bank loans.”
The Finance Minister also said Bangladesh has been able to keep its GDP growth rate above 6 percent despite worldwide economic slowdown. This is very important for the country’s economic stability. Bangladesh also has good contributions to international business, the Minister added.
Speaking at the function, Managing Director (MD) of Janata Bank Abdus Salam said his bank has earned Tk 1,162 crore as profit in 2015 against the target of Tk 1,100 crore and collected Tk 800 crore default loans in 2015.
The number of loss-making branches of the bank has come down to 35 which were 60 in 2014, Salam added.
The bank has set a target of making a profit of Tk 1,350 crore, financing Tk 16,500 crore in export sector and Tk 16,000 crore in import, making a deposit of Tk 63,000 and disbursing Tk 38,500 as loan and advance for 2016.
