State banks weighed down by bad loans

Default loans in state-run commercial banks soared 10.64 percent, or Tk 5,184 crore, in the first quarter of the year -- in the strongest sign yet of the lenders’ apathy towards cleaning up their acts.

At the end of March, the total amount of default loans in the six banks -- Sonali, Janata, Agrani, Rupali, BASIC and Bangladesh Development -- stood at Tk 53,879 crore, which is 48.60 percent of total default loans in the banking sector.

The spiralling default loans in the banks have already created a large amount of capital shortfall. And like always, without any hesitation, the government is swooping in to rescue them.