Tunisia seeks to recover USD 2.72 billion of bad loans

A committee will be set up to monitor this work, which will include five lawmakers

Tunisia plans to recover 6.5 billion dinars (USD 2.72 billion) of bad loans in three public banks as part of its banking reforms, the minister of economic reforms told Reuters on Tuesday.

Banking reform was required by the International Monetary Fund which it agreed in 2016 to assist Tunisia with a four-year loan programme worth about USD 2.8 billion.

In 2015, the government injected USD 400 million to re-capitalize struggling state lenders Tunisian Bank Corporation (STB), National Agricultural Bank (BNA) and Habitat Bank (BH).

“We started to reform public banks through new plans for good governance, then we raised their capital, and now we are trying to improve the performance and by seeking to recover bad loans amounting to 6.5 billion dinars,” Taoufik Rajhi, minister of economic reforms, told Reuters.

“The government has sent a bill to the parliament to give banks legal tools to recover bad loans such as the possibility of canceling the delay penalties and give these banks the right of reconciliation with clients,” he said.

A committee will be set up to monitor this work, which will include five lawmakers.

TunisianMonitorOnline (Reuters)

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