Distressed loans at banks soared 59 percent to a record Tk 756,526 crore in 2024, laying bare the fragile state of the country's financial sector. The distressed loans amounted to 45 percent of the total outstanding loans of about Tk 16,82,878 crore as of December last year and close to the national budget for fiscal year 2025-26. Distressed loans are generally high-risk assets where the borrower is unable to make scheduled payments of interest or principal, making them problematic for banks. It is calculated by adding written-off loans and rescheduled loans to the defaulted loans.

Among the distressed assets, defaulted loans stood at Tk 345,765 crore, rescheduled loans at Tk 348,461 crore, and written-off loans Tk 62,300 crore. The breakdown of distressed assets was unearthed in the Financial Stability Report-2024 by the Bangladesh Bank. The central bank has revealed the distressed assets as part of the conditions agreed with the International Monetary Fund for the $4.7 billion loan programme.

Last year, 2024, was "one of the deadliest and most violent years since the independence war of Bangladesh,"- marked by killings, enforced disappearances, and brutal attacks on civilians, according to the Human Rights Support Society. In its annual report released this week, the group said it recorded at least 1,180 political killings and 37,051 people being injured nationwide last year.

The July-August uprising alone claimed 1,035 lives, said HRSS, which compiled the data of deaths based on their places of occurrence. The toll it confirmed includes four killings, of which the HRSS could not determine the scene. The rights group added it is still working on the death toll of the July uprising and its estimate exceeds 1,300. Just seven days of the year- July 18-20 and August 4-7 - accounted for at least 890 of the people killed, including 309 on August 5. It found that more than 84 percent of protest-related fatalities were caused by police and other security forces.

Bangladesh Bank launched an investigation against AFM Shahinul Islam, head of the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), after several raunchy videos surfaced and went viral on social media. The central bank's IT department is verifying the authenticity of the videos and an investigation report was to be submitted to the governor on Tuesday. The video leak coincides with a separate controversy involving Shahinul, who is under fire for allegedly allowing a businessman to withdraw a big amount of money from his frozen bank accounts.

Four accounts at Bank Al-Falah belonging to businessman Khandaker Enayetullah had not been frozen as of April this year, allowing to withdraw Tk 190 million, a transaction the ACC only recently detected. A group of Bangladesh Bank employees, under the banner of 'Conscious and patriotic employees', submitted a memorandum to the governor, urging disciplinary action against Shahinul Islam. The memo further notes that Shahinul was appointed as the BFIU chief despite not being on the search committee's list.

As many as 380 people were killed and 542 others injured in 427 road accidents across the country in July, according to a report of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA). The information was collected from all divisional offices of BRTA, said a press release signed by its Chairman Abu Momtaz Saad Uddin Ahmed on Wednesday (Aug.19).

According to the report, 103 people were killed and 151 injured in Dhaka division, 89 killed and 92 injured in Chattogram division, 53 killed and 45 injured in Rajshahi division, 43 killed and 50 injured in Khulna division, 14 killed and 46 injured in Barishal division, 26 killed and 99 injured in Sylhet division, 38 killed and 48 injured in 43 Rangpur division and while 14 killed in Mymensingh division. Among the deceased, 83 were killed in motorbike accidents, 48 in accidents involving truck or covered vans, 47 in bus or minibuses accidents and 28 in auto-rickshaw accidents.