TASHKENT, June 29 (Xinhua) -- The volume of non-performing loans (NPLs) in Uzbekistan's banking system reached 23.6 trillion soums (about 1.87 billion U.S. dollars) as of June 1, accounting for 3.7 percent of the aggregate loan portfolio of 636 trillion soums, according to the latest data released by the central bank.
The data showed that asset quality varies significantly across individual financial institutions, with the NPL ratio ranging from 0 percent to 13.9 percent.
State-owned banks held the largest share of the troubled portfolio, accounting for 16.7 trillion soums across nine institutions. The average NPL ratio for state-controlled lenders stood at 4 percent, higher than the 3.2 percent average recorded by private and foreign-owned banks.
Among state-owned institutions, Microcreditbank registered the highest NPL ratio at 7.9 percent. Meanwhile, the National Bank of Uzbekistan, which holds the country's largest loan portfolio among state lenders, managed to maintain its NPL ratio at 3.3 percent.
While regulators generally consider the system-wide NPL ratio of 3.7 percent to be within a manageable range, industry analysts note that the wide discrepancy in NPL ratios highlights structural disparities in asset quality across different segments of Uzbekistan's banking sector.
