Nineteen out of 36 banks listed on the stock market could not announce dividends for the 2024 financial year within the stipulated deadline as they failed to obtain approval from Bangladesh Bank.
According to central bank officials, several of these banks were unable to present an accurate picture of their defaulted loans or meet the required provision thresholds.
The central bank has recently tightened its policies regarding the calculation of defaulted loans and has moved to restrict disbursement of disguised or nameless loans.
Despite convening board meetings at the end of the 2024 accounting year to approve financial reports and declare dividends, these 19 banks were unable to finalise any decisions.
The meetings concluded without resolutions as the banks did not receive the necessary No Objection Certificates (NOC) from the central bank.
As a result, the financial reports for the year remain unapproved, and the banks are also unable to publish unaudited reports for the first quarter of 2025.
This has left investors in the dark regarding the banks鈥� income, expenditure and dividend status, the officials said.
With seven months having passed since the release of third-quarter results, there is now a significant information gap regarding the financial health of these institutions.
April 30 marked the deadline for finalising annual reports and declaring dividends.
In response, board meetings of all 36 listed banks were held over the past 17 days. But, many meetings ended late at night without resolution due to the absence of regulatory clearance from Bangladesh Bank.
So far, 16 banks have declared dividends. ICB Islamic Bank, however, has announced that it will not pay any dividends this year either.
Bank and Bangladesh Bank officials have confirmed that the audited financial reports of these 19 banks were withheld for various reasons, primarily the failure to reflect actual defaulted loans, inadequate provisioning and incomplete disclosures of defaulting borrowers.
