Four state-owned commercial banks recovered only 3 percent of their full-year target from top 20 defaulters in the first three months of 2015.

The banks blamed the slow pace of the recovery drive on political unrest.

Between January and March, Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali banks retrieved from top 20 defaulters only Tk 30.38 crore against the whole year target of Tk 975 crore.

Apart from the top 20, the banks realised Tk 322 crore or 11 percent of the whole year target of Tk 2,925 crore.

Political unrest in the first three months of the year slowed Sonali's recovery, Managing Director Pradip Kumar Dutta told The Daily Star.

He also said it is usually difficult to retrieve loans from the defaulters. The political chaos also hampered the defaulters' business and made them unable to pay back loans, he said. Many businessmen could not use the loan rescheduling scope as they could not clear the down payments, Dutta said.

The situation will improve by December, as Sonali has taken some steps to speed up loan recovery, he said.

Sonali had set a target of realising Tk 430 crore from the top 20 defaulters while it recovered only Tk 10.70 crore in the period, according to central bank statistics.

In the three months, Sonali collected Tk 122 crore from other defaulters against the target of Tk 1,300 crore.

Janata Bank recovered only Tk 7.87 crore from the top 20, which is much lower from the Tk 235 crore target. Other defaulters repaid only Tk 117 crore against Tk 700 crore. The biggest defaulters of Agrani Bank paid back only Tk 11.36 crore against the target of Tk 230 crore; while the bank recovered Tk 74.36 crore against Tk 695 crore from other defaulters.

Rupali received only Tk 95 lakh from top 20 defaulters against its target of Tk 80 crore. On the other hand, the bank could collect Tk 9.38 crore from other defaulters against the target of Tk 230 crore.

The central bank held a meeting with the state banks about the performance of the four banks in the first quarter of the fiscal year and expressed dissatisfaction on the poor performance.