Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– The operating profits of the country’s private commercial banks (PCBs) showed a mixed trend in the just-concluded calendar year – 2012, mainly due to decreased interest rate spread, bankers said.
A number of PCBs have been able to record only a modest rate of growth of their operating profits in 2012 over those of the previous calendar year. But the growth rates of operational profit of some other PCBs in 2012 were lower than that of 2011, they added.
“The sluggish trend in the country’s capital market, cautious monetary policy, lower import payments and Hall-Mark loan scam have also been responsible for lower level of profits of the banks in 2012,” a senior banker explained.
Operating profits, however, do not indicate the real financial health of a bank. Because, the banks have to make room for provisioning against bad loans and taxes that have to be paid to the government from such profits.
Higher deposit rates have pushed up their cost of fund in 2012, he said, adding that the average cost of fund was hovering between 11 per cent and 12 per cent for most of the time in 2012 which was 9.0 per cent to 10 per cent in the previous year.
The weighted average spread between lending and deposit rates offered by the commercial banks came down to 5.41 per cent last November from 5.63 per cent last January, according to the statistics of the central bank.
The weighted average lending rate stood at 13.94 per cent in November while that of deposit was 8.53 per cent.
Among those banks, the Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd. (IBBL) was the top operating-profit earner – BDT 18.30 billion in 2012 against BDT 14.70 billion earned in the previous year.
The Prime Bank Ltd. was placed in the second position with an estimated earning of BDT 10.70 billion in operating profit, compared to that of BDT 8.26 billion in 2011.
National Bank Ltd. (NBL) secured the third position, earning BDT 7.80 billion as operating profit in 2012 against BDT 10.42 billion in the previous year.
The operating profit of Pubali Bank Ltd. rose to BDT 6.40 billion in the just concluded year from BDT 5.90 billion in 2011
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The operating profit of UCBL came down to BDT 5.90 billion in 2012 from BDT 6.05 billion of the previous year.
Southeast Bank Ltd. made operating profits worth BDT 5.50 billion in 2012 against BDT 6.05 billion in 2011.
The operating profits of EXIM Bank Ltd. rose to BDT 5.50 billion in 2012 from BDT 4.07billion a year ago while Bank Asia earned BDT 5.03 billion in 2012 against BDT 4.17 billion in 2011.
National Credit and Commerce Bank Ltd (NCCBL) earned BDT 4.03 billion in operational profits in 2012 compared to BDT 4.22 billion in 2011.
The operating profit of Eastern Bank Ltd. rose to BDT 5.65 billion last year from around BDT 5.00 billion in 2011.
The operating profit of Dutch Bangla Bank Ltd. increased to BDT 5.50 billion in 2012 from BDT 5.14 billion in 2011.
Al-Arafah Islami Bank made operating profit worth BDT 4.60 billion in 2012 against BDT 4.10 billion of the previous year while Social Islami Bank Ltd (SIBL) earned BDT 3.85 billion in 2011 compared to BDT 3.02 billion in 2011.
The operating profit of Shahjalal Islami Bank Ltd. rose to BDT 4.57 billion last year from BDT 3.15 billion in 2011 while such profit of the Standard Bank Ltd reached increased to BDT 3.53 billion in 2012 from BDT 3.00 billion 2011.
The operating profit of City Bank rose to BDT 4.10 in 2012 from BDT 4.05 billion in 2011 while Mutual Trust Bank earned BDT 1.35 billion as operating profits in 2012 compared to BDT 1.25 billion in 2011.
Dhaka Bank earned operating profit worth BDT 4.00 billion in 2012 compared to BDT 4.63 billion in 2011.
The operating profit of IFIC Bank rose to BDT 3.46 billion on 2012 from BDT 3.18 billion in 2011 while such profit of Jamuna Bank reached the level of BDT 3.26 billion in 2012 from BDT 3.07 billion in 2011.
The operating profit of One Bank Ltd. came down to BDT 2.70 billion in 2012 from BDT 3.05 billion of the previous year.
First Security Bank Ltd. earned operating profit worth BDT 1.98 billion in 2012 compared to BDT 1.63 billion in 2010.
The operating profit of Mercantile Bank came down to BDT 3.50 billion on 2012 from BDT 3.90 billion in 2011.
BBN/SSR/AD-01Jan13-11:40 am (BST)
