Less than 5,000 borrowers now account for nearly one-third of all bank loans in Bangladesh, highlighting a growing concentration of credit and elevated default risks.
Economists say that the trend reflects widening economic inequality that restricted access to finance for small businesses, farmers and individual entrepreneurs.
Bangladesh Bank data compiled recently showed that only 4,899 borrower accounts held outstanding loans of Tk 5,75,706 crore as of March 31, 2026, which was 32.27 per cent of the banking sector’s total loans of Tk 17,83,919 crore.
These accounts represented just 0.031 per cent of the country’s 1,59,82,010 active loan accounts.
At the end of March 2024, only 3,704 large borrowers held Tk 4,31,960 crore, accounting for 27.6 per cent of total outstanding loans.
On the other hand, more than 1.07 crore borrowers, or 67.45 per cent of all loan accounts, had outstanding loans below Tk 1 lakh.
Together they held only Tk 28,732 crore, equivalent to 1.61 per cent of total bank lending, the official data showed.
The imbalance becomes more evident when loans up to Tk 10 lakh are considered.
A total of 1,49,78,945 borrowers, or 93.73 per cent of all accounts, held loans worth Tk 1,63,991 crore, representing only 9.19 per cent of the banking sector’s total credit.
The concentration becomes even more striking in the upper tier.
Bangladesh Bank data showed that only 26,597 borrowers, representing 0.16 per cent of all accounts, held Tk 10,13,493 crore, or 56.82 per cent of the entire banking system’s loan portfolio.
Large corporate groups, including S Alam Group, Beximco Group, City Group, Bashundhara Group, Nassa Group, Orion Group, Deshbandhu Group, Bengal Group, Sikder Group and Nabil Group, account for a substantial portion of these large exposures.
Such concentration means the stability of the banking sector increasingly depends on the repayment performance of a small number of large borrowers and business groups, experts said.
Mustafa K Mujeri, executive director of the Institute for Inclusive Finance and Development, told New Age on Monday that the high concentration of bank loans among a small number of borrowers reflected broader economic inequality.
He said that large borrowers accounted for a significant share of defaulted loans, while small borrowers generally maintained better repayment records.
According to him, excessive lending to a few business groups increases default risks and deprives small entrepreneurs of needed financing, limiting business expansion and economic growth.
He called for stricter limits and oversight on large exposures to ensure wider access to credit.
The risk is particularly significant at a time when banks are already struggling with a record volume of bad loans.
Classified loans stood at Tk 5.88 lakh crore, or about 32 per cent of total outstanding loans, at the end of March 2026.
If one or several large borrowers face financial difficulties or default, the losses can quickly spread across banks, weaken capital positions and threaten financial stability.
The trend is most visible in state-owned banks. Of their total loan portfolio of Tk 3,51,557 crore, only 1,112 large borrowers held Tk 1,71,900 crore, accounting for 48.9 per cent of all lending by state-owned banks.
Borrowers with loans below Tk 10 lakh, who account for nearly 94 per cent of all borrowers, receive less than one-tenth of total bank credit, according to the BB data.
