Badrul Ahsan :
Although all the commercial banks, both public and private, have been facing huge pressure from excess liquidity and non-performing loans, the operating profits of most banks have shown an upward trend in the last six months of the just concluded year.
The banks numbering 45, however, concealed the data on profit and half-yearly performance. Among the banks, 42 have made profit. Of which at least 22 banks have made significant profit at the end of June. Only three banks’ profit has been shown downward.
Banks maintain the January-December period as their fiscal year.
However, almost all the banks have settled their accounts immediately after June 30 as settling accounts is now more easier than before as most banks automate their business process.
According to the data, Islami banks have made the highest profits than the traditional ones during the period.
The operating profits of the banks are, however, not the final profit. It is the unaudited profits. In the final count, the amount may be a little higher or lower as the banks have to set aside funds for provisioning bad debts and taxes payable to the government from their operating profits, according to the bankers.
Meanwhile, the latest central bank data released on March this year showed that the excess liquidity in the banks stood at Tk1,22,073 crore at the end of 2016 while it was Tk1,20,679 crore in 2015.
The non-performing loans (NPL) in the banking sector increased by Tk11,237 crore in the January-March period.
At the end of March, the total NPL stood at Tk73,409 crore which is 10.53 percent of total outstanding loans.
The default loan of private banks stood at Tk29,727 crore in the first quarter of this year, up 28.93 percent from the last three months of 2016.
The state banks’ default loans increased from Tk4,691 crore to Tk35,716 crore during the first quarter of 2017.
Default loans of the foreign commercial (FCL) banks operating in the country declined from Tk2,405 crore to Tk2,282 crore. The NPL of these banks was Tk62,172 crore at the end of December, 2016.
