KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Wednesday said that it did not refuse to furnish information before parliament about loans written off by banks but is legally bound not to divulge information of borrowers whose loans have not been written off.

The SBP said it was mandatory for banks to disclose annually, for public consumption, the names of persons whose loans amounting to Rs500,000 or more had been written off.

The Senate recently demanded from the bank the names of borrowers of Rs5 million and above from whom the loans had been recovered, and the names of those whose loans had been waived.

`The SBP has clearly responded that the banks did not waive off loansamounting to Rs5m and above during the aforesaid period,` the central bank said.

It provided consolidated information to the Senate about the number of loans disbursed and recoveries made during the past five years.

However, names of all individual borrowers who availed loans during the period were not shared due to legal provisions of Section 33-A of the Banking Companies Ordinance, 1962 and Section 9 of the Protection of Economic Reforms Act, 1992 which bars sharing of customers` information, it said.

The SBP said it strongly believed in maintaining transparency in its aff airs and stood ready for any accountability by the representatives of public in parliament. `Further, the SBP has been and shall keep providing all information permissible under the law,` it said.