As of November 1950 the public external debt of Nicaragua amounted to the equivalent of Unites States (US) $ 4.4 million. Nearly 80 percent or $3.5 million, of the obligation is composed of loans from the Bank of America ($2.4 million) and the Exim Bank ($1.1 million). The balance of $910,000 represents the principal outstanding on the sterling bonds of 1909 on which the application of sinking fund has been in default since 1946. In July 1894 the interest on 6 percent sterling loan of 1886 amounting to $285,000 for the development of railways fell into default and in 1895 a settlement of the debt was affected between the Government and the British Council of Foreign Bondholders. Between 1911-37 a succession of defaults occurred on the sterling loan of 1909. During the same period four debt settlement plans were put into operation with the consent of the Council. Commercial debts totaling $28 million had accumulated between 1935-37. This represented unpaid private imports taken over by the Government. Between 1938-50 three public external funded loans were incurred by Nicaragua. The first one, the $2 million 4 percent Exim Bank loan of 1939 for the construction of the Pan-American highway was fully repaid by early 1949; the other two, the export-import bank loan of 1941 and the Bank of America loan of 1947 are still outstanding.