Staff Reporter :
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said yesterday that the government would arrange special audit of banks to find out root causes of loan scandals and rising non-performing loans.
“Each and every bank of the country will come under the special audit soon. The finance ministry will assign three audit firms to do the job,” Kamal said it while speaking at the Annual Business Conference of Rupali Bank in Dhaka on Wednesday.
He said the finance ministry has initiated the move to dictate the causes of the current banking crisis arising out of repeated loan scandals and rising non-performing loans.
Mustafa Kamal also underlined the need for bringing necessary legal reforms to address the ballooning of non-performing loans.
Terming the loan delinquency as a ‘crime against the whole nation,’ he said, “There are two types of businessmen in our country. One group really wants to do business with bank loans but sometimes fail to repay the loan amount with accrued interest due to adverse business climate. But the other group only takes loan to defraud. We will be liberal towards the real businessmen. But, we will go tough against the ‘willful’ defaulters.”
He also asked the bank officials to go tough against such loan defaulters.
The finance minister further said, the government will take all out measures to recover the banks’ money from the delinquent borrowers. If needed, it will bring necessary legal reforms to address the problem.
“In Malaysia, loan defaulters are not even allowed to leave the country. We have to introduce similar legal reforms in the country to deal with the current default culture and rising non-performing loans”.
Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Fazle Kabir, Chairman of Rupali Bank Monzur Hossain, and its Chief Executive Officer Mohammad Ataur Rahman Prodhan also spoke on the occasion.
