Operating profit of the country's private commercial banks (PCBs) showed an upturn in the first six months of the current calendar year.
Of the 39 PCBs, 13 marked an upward trend in operating profits while only one witnessed a downturn, according to provisional data for the January-June 2016 period.
The data of the rest were not immediately available
In the final count, the amount of profit may be a little higher or lower, said officials of different commercial banks.
The un-audited operating profit, however, does not indicate the actual financial position of a bank as the banks have to leave aside funds for provisioning the bad debts and taxes payable to the government.
Increasing trend of credit practically in private sector has helped the commercial banks to pick up their operating profits in the first half of the year over that of the same period last year, according to the bankers.
The private-sector credit growth rose to 16.40 per cent in May 2016 on a year-on-year basis from 15. 56 per cent in April last, according to the central bank latest statistics. The credit growth was 15.16 per cent in March.
Such credit growth has already surpassed the target set by the central bank in its monetary policy for the January-June period of the fiscal year.
The central bank had projected that the private-sector credits would grow at 14.8 per cent in June 2016 from 13.8 per cent in December 2015.
"The operating profit of few banks decreased mainly due to increase in their volume of classified loans in the first quarter of this calendar year," a senior official of a leading private commercial bank (PCB) told the FE Saturday.
The volume of non-performing loans (NPLs) in the country's banking system increased by more than 15 per cent to Tk 594.11 billion during the January-March period of this year from Tk 513.71 billion in the preceding quarter despite close monitoring by the central bank.
The private banker also said there is a twin-effect of classified loans in the banking system. "The banks will have to keep the interest earned from classified loans to their interest-suspense account, instead of taking it into profit account."
Besides, the banks will have to ensure provisioning against total classified loans from their profits.
"We expect that the operating profits may rise further in the second half of this year if the banks are able to reduce the amount of NPLs through strengthening their recovery drive across the country," he noted.
The operating profit of Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd rose to Tk 8.54 billion during the period under review from Tk 8.42 billion in the same period of 2015.
The National Bank Ltd earned Tk 6.10 billion as operating profit against Tk 3.95 billion while the Southeast Bank's profit rose to Tk 4.20 billion from Tk 4.13 billion.
The operating profit of Dutch-Bangla Bank Ltd came down to Tk 3.24 billion in the first six months (H1) of this calendar year from Tk 3.30 billion in the same of the last year.
Al-Arafah Islami Bank Ltd earned Tk 3.50 billion as operating profit against Tk 3.07 billion while operating profit of the EXIM Bank Ltd rose to Tk 2.55 billion from Tk 2.50 billion.
NCC Bank Ltd made operating profits worth Tk 2.01 billion in the H1 of 2016 against Tk 1.78 billion in the same period of the last year.
Bank Asia Ltd and Mercantile Bank Ltd earned Tk 2.78 billion and Tk 2.30 billion as operating profit against Tk 2.53 billion and Tk 1.97 billion respectively.
The Meghna Bank Ltd made operating profits worth Tk 580 million in the H1 of 2016 against Tk 250 million in the same period of the last year while South Bangla Agriculture Bank Ltd earned Tk 700 million against Tk 275 million.
The Prime Bank Ltd posted an operating profit of Tk 4.01 billion against Tk 3.15 billion while the Social Islami Bank's profit rose to Tk 2.40 billion from Tk 2.06 billion.
Modhumoti Bank Ltd earned Tk 320 million in operating profits in the H1 of this calendar year compared to Tk 290 million in the corresponding period of the last year.
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