Overcautious steps by the commercial banks are hampering the credit flow to the private sector in the county, said International Chamber of Commerce- Bangladesh (ICCB) President Mahbubur Rahman, reports BSS. “The much needed credit flow for the private sector is very low and depressing due to over cautious steps by the commercial banks,” said the ICCB President and suggested that the commercial banks and financial institutions must develop a sound and accountable credit management system to avoid risks. He said this while inaugurating the ICC workshop on “Credit Risk Management and Trade Finance,” organized by ICCB at a local hotel here today. Mahbubur Rahman said ICC has been globally campaigning for trade facilitation deals. To avail of trade facilitation opportunities and also to become a middle income country within the next few years, Bangladesh must create a congenial environment for development of a sustainable private sector, he added. “For this, credit to the private sector as well as investment to the infrastructure is of utmost importance,” he said. ICCB President said a number of state-owned and private commercial banks are faced with huge loan defaults due to fraudulence practices by some officials of the banks (both public and private) in connivance with some ill-motivated unscrupulous clients. More than Tk.4,000 crore have been siphoned out from two state-owned banks alone, he said, adding that such incidents have raised serious question as to the efficiency of the bank managements, including the board as well as the central banks failure to take drastic and timely action to stop such practices. Mamun Rashid, Chairman, ICCB Standing Committee on Banking, Technique and Practices, Mohammed Hossain, former National Fraud Risk Detection and Mitigation Adviser of Bangladesh Bank, Johnson Chang, Credit Risk Officer, HSBC Bangladesh, among others, spoke at the workshop. A total of 88 senior and mid-level executives from banks and financial institutions participated in the workshop.