Rising NPLs: Each bank to come under special audit, says finance minister

The government will arrange special audits for each and every bank of the country in a bid to tackle the rising amount of non-performing loans (NPLs), Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has said.

“Each and every bank of the country will come under this special auditing,” Kamal said while speaking during the Annual Business Conference of Rupali Bank in Dhaka city on Wednesday.

“We will soon engage three audit firms to conduct this special auditing,” the Finance Minister added.

Kamal also underlined the need for bringing necessary legal reforms to address the ballooning of non-performing loans.

Noting that in Malaysia, loan defaulters are not even allowed to leave the country, the Finance Minister said, “We have to introduce similar legal reforms in the country to deal with the current bad loan scenario”.

The minister also termed the loan delinquency as a ‘crime against the whole nation’.

“The loans that are becoming classified is actually the money of the ordinary people of the country,” he said.

“Therefore, bank officials must go tough against such loan defaulters,” Kamal said.

Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir, Chairman of Rupali Bank Monzur Hossain, and its Chief Executive Officer Mohammad Ataur Rahman Prodhan also spoke on the occasion.

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