BB appoints administrator at troubled Premier Leasing

The central bank yesterday appointed an administrator at Premier Leasing & Finance Ltd (PLFL) following a court order, the first such move aimed at a non-bank financial institution in Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh Bank has appointed its Executive Director AKM Mohiuddin Azad as the administrator at the beleaguered NBFI, said Md Serajul Islam, a spokesperson of the central bank.

The central bank has taken the decision to comply with a High Court order, he said. BB Governor Fazle Kabir approved the appointment on Tuesday.

The court order came after one of the depositors of the NBFI had filed a case over PLFL's failure to pay back deposits on time.

Defaulted loans in the NBFI have surged alarmingly in the recent period, according to data from the central bank.

Non-performing loans stood at Tk 384 crore, accounting for 30.53 per cent of its outstanding loans as of June.

 The company has failed to keep provisioning against defaulted and unclassified loans as well. The provisioning shortfall stood at Tk 78.34 crore as of June.

A good number of NBFIs recently faced troubles to repay depositors due to widespread financial scams.

The government earlier decided to liquidate People's Leasing and Financial Services after the central bank detected a large-scale scam. The NBFI has also failed to repay depositors.