Sonali Bank Limited registered an operating profit of more than Tk 25 billion in 2022 despite the country's banking system going through many challenges, including loan-related irregularities, during the just-concluded calendar year.
The country's largest commercial bank, however, claimed its EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Tax) or operating profit would be the highest among all banks in the year.
"The bank's operating profit was more than Tk 4.0 billion higher last year than that of the previous year," Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the state-owned bank Md. Afzal Karim told a press briefing at the bank's Motijheel headquarters on Sunday.
The bank's net interest income, the core earnings, increased by over 42 per cent, or Tk 11.22 billion, to Tk 37.69 billion in 2022.
"The earnings reflected a good sign that we'll be able to achieve our goal to bring down the capital shortfall to zero by the next five years. As part of the plan, we're making sincere efforts to increase the volume of performing loans and it is growing fast," Mr. Karim said.
Instead of focusing more on large borrowers, he said, the bank gave high priority to Cottage, Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (CMSMEs) where a major portion of their investment goes in 2022.
The overall volume of loans released by the bank now stands at Tk 846 billion while the deposit portfolio in 2022 rose to Tk 1.41 trillion, which is also the highest in the country's banking system, he said.
"We need to utilise such a huge deposit base to make the bank's financial health stronger and we're working on it," he added.
Sonali Bank is the largest bank in terms of its network of 1,229 branches across the country and clients' deposit base. It also has two overseas branches in Kolkata and Shiliguri of India.
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