The Bangladesh Bank on Wednesday extended the tenure of relaxation related to its loan classification policy again by six more months for the borrowers of non-bank financial institutions as it found it was necessary for the economy following the second wave of the Covid outbreak.

Under the policy relaxation, the NBFIs are barred from treating any loans as default if the borrowers clear 50 per cent of the dues for the months of January to December of the year 2021, even if the payment is made on the last working day of the year under consideration.

The facility would be given based on the respective NBFI’s relationship with the customers.

A BB circular issued in this regard on Wednesday said that the facility was introduced with a view to supporting the customers who would face difficulty in paying their loan instalments due to the ongoing crisis induced by the outbreak of the second wave of coronavirus.

The BB circular said that the borrowers of NBFIs would be allowed to clear the remaining 50 per cent of their overdue loans for the January-December 2021 period in one year after the expiry of the tenure of the existing loans.

The central bank also said that the NBFIs would be allowed to book only the interest amount which would be realised.

The central bank’s latest circular regarding the borrowers of NBFIs came after the relaxation of loan classification rules for the bank borrowers.

Bank borrowers would enjoy the same relaxation on loan classification but they will have to clear only 25 per cent of the overdue loan amount for the January-December period of 2021 to avail the scope.

The amount of defaulted loans in the country’s banking sector surged by Tk 9,430.25 crore in January-June of the year 2021 to Tk 98,164.31 crore.

The amount of classified loans in the NBFIs reached Tk 10,353.6 crore at the end of March 31, 2021.

Earlier in June, the central bank asked the banks and NBFIs not to downgrade any loans if the borrowers repaid only 20 per cent of their June quarter-end overdue amount within August 31, 2021.

The central bank issued a moratorium facility to all the bank and NBFI borrowers for the entire year 2020 after the coronavirus outbreak.