Over the past 15 years, the volume of non-performing loans (NPLs) in the country’s banking sector could have funded the construction of 14 metro rail systems or 24 Padma Bridges, according to the White Paper Committee. They stated that during this period, the banking sector has been the most affected, with the amount of bad and defaulted loans skyrocketing to unprecedented levels.

The committee warned that the country’s banking sector has essentially fallen into an economic black hole. On Sunday, the committee’s chair, Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya, handed over the report to Chief Advisor Professor Muhammad Yunus at his Tejgaon office. The report highlighted instances of corruption, irregularities, loan scandals, fake loans, and misuse of loans within the banking sector.

It further noted that state-sponsored interventions had facilitated the capture of banks, while a significant portion of the embezzled funds from the banking sector was siphoned off abroad.

As of June this year, the total volume of defaulted loans in the banking sector stood at BDT 211,391 crore. Additionally, restructured and rescheduled loans amounted to BDT 272,856 crore, written-off loans were at BDT 75,389 crore, special mention loans stood at BDT 39,209 crore, and loans exempted from default status due to court orders amounted to BDT 76,185 crore. Altogether, the total amount of non-performing loans reached BDT 675,030 crore by the end of June.