Current official policy in the industrial sector is directed towards building up private entrepreneurship through fiscal concessions, liberal provision of public resources and disinvestment of particular nationalised enterprises. In these circumstances it is essential to appraise the efficacy with which the private entrepreneurs have thus far handled public resources. This paper examines one aspect of this performance, the repayment of loans to public financial institutions (BSB and BSRS) by the private entrepreneurs. The results indicate that the loan repayment performance of private enterprises to both BSB and BSRS has been poor, with considerable accumulation of overdues in payment liability and its growth over time. This accumulation and build up of overdues is pervasive amongst all enterprises. Poor repayment performance does not differentiate between the size of enterprises, its location or the entrepreneurial class as a whole. Given the widespread nature of the default it is essential to seek a fuller understanding of the circumstances contributing to the poor repayment performance of private entrepreneurs in Bangladesh. This will provide the basis for a review of the validity and efficacy of the policy of channelling public resources and denationalisation of enterprises into private hands.