Financial institutions advised to reschedule loans

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Tuesday advised microfinance banks to reschedule loans to borrowers of the flood-affected areas under the existing prudential regulations, where the possibility of recovery exists.

For all such rescheduled/restructured loans and advances, the microfinance banks may defer loan provisioning up to December 31, 2011, the SBP said in a circular.

Similar advice was issued to banks and development finance institutions (DFIs) for providing relief to the borrowers of the flood-affected areas to reschedule agriculture and SME loans and advances.

Loan write-offs Banks issue notices to defaulters

KARACHI: Banks have already issued notices to defaulters in line with the directives of the Supreme Court, heads of commercial banks informed the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) at a meeting held Monday.

The SBP convened a meeting of commercial banks and development finance institutions to work out a strategy to recover written-off loans under the directive of the Supreme Court, said a statement.

IMF to approve Pakistan tranche in April: official

KARACHI: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is likely to meet by mid-April to approve the fifth tranche of a loan to Pakistan and a delay was purely for “bureaucratic” reasons, a government official said on Monday.


Pakistan turned to the IMF for an emergency loan package of $7.6 billion in November 2008 to help avert a balance of payments crisis and shore up reserves.