58% of loans of four banks concentrated in five branches

Four state-owned commercial banks have 58% of their total loans concentrated in their top five branches, which raises the risk of incidents of fraud.

The observation came at a meeting of the Bangladesh Bank governor and the managing directors of Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali banks on Thursday.

Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir presided over the meeting that reviewed these banks' performance from January to June this year.

The governor asked the top managers of the four banks to come out of loan concentration in five branches as most of the incidents of forgeries were found in those branches.

He also scolded a managing director of a bank for giving loan to a business entity in Kurigram from Dhaka office instead of a local branch.

According to the central bank data, the share of loans given through five branches of the Sonali Bank is 34.26%, while for the Janata Bank it is 76.94%, for the Agrani Bank 53.17%, and for the Rupali Bank 68.68% as of June this year.

Of the total Tk1.72 lakh crore loans from these four banks, Tk99,661 crore was given through their top five branches.

At the meeting, the Bangladesh Bank governor also expressed dissatisfaction over slow loan disbursement under the stimulus package for the cottage, micro, small and medium enterprise (CMSME) sector.

He asked banks to accelerate loan disbursement under the package of Tk20,000 crore.

The loan disbursement by the Sonali Bank under the stimulus package for CMSME was 10.37% of the target as of September, while it achieved 86% of the target under the stimulus package of Tk30,000 crore offered to large industries.

The Janata Bank achieved 8.85% of disbursement target under the stimulus package for CMSME and 95.97% under the stimulus package for large industries, while the Agrani Bank achieved 7.64% and 74% of the targets respectively.

The Rupali Bank disbursed the lowest amount of loans under both stimulus packages. The bank achieved 4.44% under the small package and 39% under the large package, according to the central bank data.

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