Sonali Bank improves its asset quality notably

Riding on massive recovery drives across the country, the state-owned Sonali Bank PLC made a significant stride in improving its asset quality in 2025 calendar year.

Sharing the key financials of the bank at a media briefing at its headquarters on Tuesday, the bank's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Md. Shawkat Ali Khan said the bank had intensified its cash recovery and mobilised Tk 12.04 billion in 2025.

The amount was 107 per cent up from the previous year's count of Tk 5.80 billion, he said.

Of the total, the country's largest commercial bank recovered Tk 7.45 billion from the top 20 defaulting entities, according to the bank sources.

Following the positive outcomes, he said, the ratio of classified loans in the bank was to drop below 16 per cent at the end of December last.

In 2024, the bank's burden of NPLs (non-performing loans) was calculated 18.20 per cent, he said adding: "We want to bring it (NPL) down to single digit by 2027." Despite an economic slowdown throughout the past calendar year, the top executive of the state-owned commercial lender said they have registered a record Tk 80.17 billion worth of operating profit, the highest in its history. The profit surged by Tk 23.83 billion from the previous year's amount of Tk 56.34 billion.

The bank's net income is expected to be significantly higher in the range between Tk 11.0 billion and Tk 17.0 billion, which depends on BB inspection and external audit, he said.

By the end of September last, the volume of its net income was calculated at Tk 8.56 billion.

"We're now aiming to fully overcome our longstanding capital and provisioning shortfalls by the end of this year. There will be no shortfalls in any forms," the bank's top executive said with confidence.

Mr Khan, who joined the bank as managing director in October, 2024, said amid the challenging economic environment, the bank's deposit portfolio expanded significantly to reach around Tk 1.80 trillion at the end of December 2025.

The volume marked an increase of Tk 148.59 billion from the previous year's figure of around Tk 1.65 trillion, he mentioned.

"In fact, it is the trust of the depositors over the bank, which helped raise the deposit netting although deposit mobilisation is not a top priority since ADR (advance-deposit-ratio) remained low at 58.22 per cent," he said.

The loan portfolio rose by 5.57 per cent to reach Tk 1.05 trillion in 2025.

Deputy managing directors, treasury head and other senior officials were present at the press meet.

jubairfe1980@gmail.com