DUSHANBE, July 22, 2011, Asia-Plus — We have passed the peak level of problem and past-due loans that was reported in the first quarter of this year, Iskandar Davlatov, head of the banking supervision department within the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT), announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on July 21.
“Over the first three months of this year, the level of classified loans has reached 28 percent, while over the second quarter, it has declined to 16.7 percent and as of the end of the second quarter, it was 16.4 percent,” Davlatov said.
Classified loan is any bank loan that is in danger of default. Classified loans have unpaid interest and principal outstanding, and it is unclear whether the bank will be able to recoup the loan proceeds from the borrower. Banks usually categorize such loans as adversely classified assets on their books.
The NBT principal deputy chairman Jamshed Yusufiyon noted that they had received recommendations from international experts on how to reduce the level of past-due loans and had strengthened banking supervision.
“We have conducted a survey to determine the level of risk of the past-due loans in the banking and microfinance spheres,” said Yusufiyon. “The findings of the survey have shown that the level of the past-due loans has reduced.”
He confirmed that “the country’s largest commercial banks sometimes finance large borrowers, supplying essential goods to the country, for political reasons.”
According to the NBT data, the past-due loans amounted to 295.7 million somoni as of June 1, 2011. As of June 30, 2011, the total remainder of loans provided by banks amounted to 4.4 billion somoni (equivalent to more than US$936 million).
Tajik banks have provided 3.3 billion somoni (equivalent to more than US$700 million) over the first six months of this year.
Over the same six-month period, the average term for loans provided to physical entities was 192 days and the average term for loans provided to legal entities was 309 days. The weighted average interest rate for loans provided in the national currency was 23.13 percent and the weighted average interest rate for loans provided in foreign currencies was 22.43 percent.”
