Published: 12:31 AM, 03 September 2026
One third of total bank loans is defaulted
Within a span of three months, the amount of non-performing loans (NPLs) in Bangladesh's banking sector increased by Tk 17,851 crore.
Arif Hossain Khan, spokesperson and Executive Director of Bangladesh Bank, said on Wednesday that the amount of classified, or non-performing, loans stood at Tk 606,555 crore at the end of June.
According to Bangladesh Bank data, the total amount of loans disbursed by banks stood at Tk 2,569,747 crore at the end of June. The NPL ratio was 32.78%.
At the end of March, the amount of non-performing loans in the banking sector was Tk 588,704 crore, with the NPL ratio standing at 32.26% at the time.
A review of Bangladesh Bank data shows that non-performing loans amounted to Tk 530,428 crore in June 2025.
This means that NPLs increased by Tk 76,127 crore, or 14.35%, over the course of one year.
People familiar with the matter said that a large amount of non-performing loans had been renewed before the national parliamentary election due to special facilities for loan recovery and rescheduling. As a result, the amount of NPLs in the banking sector fell to Tk 557,216 crore in December.
However, despite providing special renewal facilities to loan defaulters, NPLs rose again in March and continued their upward trend through the end of June.
For the first time in the country's history, non-performing loans crossed the Tk 1 lakh crore mark in March 2019. At that time, NPLs stood at Tk 110,873 crore. Since then, the amount has continued to rise steadily.
