Illegal and defaulted loans resulting in Non-performing Loans, NPL with various financial institutions have surfaced during the covid pandemic, sparking numerous legal battles. To avoid such cases in the future, a two-day need analysis workshop was held in Paro. This is to enrich attorneys representing financial institutions in better understanding financial regulations, avoiding legal errors, and lowering the danger of costly lawsuits among others.
Due to the notable rise in NPLs that has occurred in recent years in all of the financial institutions in the nation, this issue has gained particular attention. Eight lending banking institutions in the nation currently have approximately 2000 loan accounts that are being sought for repayment with legal aid.
To lower such cases and educate the employees of financial institutions, 40 lawyers from 13 financial institutions attended the workshop jointly organised by the Bar Council of Bhutan and the Financial Institutions Association of Bhutan. The two-day workshop ended yesterday. Justices from the judiciary facilitated the meeting.
“There are many NPLs in the banks and there are individuals availing loans through fraud. For example, there are people that avail themselves of several loans on a fixed mortgage. And later they result in NPLs. And when banks try to confiscate the mortgage after the loans default, then the issue arises. Therefore, our objective is to come up with ways to tackle and curb such issues,” said Rinzin Penjor, Bar Council of Bhutan’s Vice President.
“So, with the rising NPL cases there will be more litigations and lawyers of the financial institutions would be litigating those NPL cases. So, it is important because from such workshop both the judiciary and financial institutions will be aware of what is expected from each other so that those litigations will be carried out swiftly and promptly,” said Letho Wangchuk, Executive Director of Financial Institutions Association of Bhutan.
The workshop laid the basis or a way forward for future training and capacity building to increase proficiency in financial law, safeguarding the institution’s interests and promoting stability and success.
As of April this year, the total NPL in the country stood at over Nu 454 M and the total credit from the financial institutions at a little over Nu 19bn.
Namgay Wangchuk, Paro
Edited by Kipchu
