92 foreign companies among 825 borrowers: over Rs 4 billion loans written off in 2009

Around 825 borrowers, including 92 foreign companies, got written off their Rs 4019.355 million loans from four major financial institutions in 2009.
According to the statistics of four major banks - Habib Bank Limited, United Bank Limited, NIB and Bank Alfalah - which was exclusively available to Business Recorder revealed that around 825 borrowers including 92 foreign companies have got their loans amounting to Rs 4,019.355 million written off during 2009.
These statistics further said the UBL had despaired of recovering Rs 2347.99 million loans to some 523 borrowers, of which some Rs 127.583 million lent to the Somalian Embassy and some 92 companies of Doha Qatar were written off during 2009.
The UBL has closed the accounts of some 341 individuals having Rs 448.314 million outstanding loans, but also wiped off the accounts of three sugar mills, four builders and some 13 textile units having loans of Rs 38.17 million, Rs 790.49 million and Rs 86.208 million, respectively, from its ledger.
Similarly, the HBL has written off Rs 1233.245 million loans to some 128 borrowers including 47 individuals, five ex-staffers, nine textile units and other industries during the said period.
In the same way, the National Investment Bank (NIB) has listed the loans of Rs 399.131 million to some 162 borrowers including 153 individuals and nine companies, in its bad debts account in 2009. In the same year, Bank Alfalah has also written off Rs 38.989 million loans of 12 borrowers, of which Rs 33.955 million related to five companies while rest of the amount were borrowed by some seven individuals.