Sonali Bank's Managing Director and CEO Md Shawkat Ali Khan shared the key achievements of the bank for 2024 at a view exchange meeting with journalists at the bank's head office conference room on Thursday. Despite an economic slowdown in the past calendar year, state-owned Sonali Bank PLC has registered an operating profit of Tk 56.34 billion, the highest in its history.
The profit has surged by Tk 17.88 billion from the previous year's profit of Tk 38.46 billion.
The country's largest commercial bank achieved this milestone primarily through returns from high-yielding government securities throughout the year, according to the bank officials.
"Despite political instability and adverse business climate, our bank broke all the previous records in terms of operating profit in 2024," said Md. Shawkat Ali Khan, managing director and chief executive officer of the bank, at a media briefing held at its headquarters on Thursday.
Mr Khan, who joined the bank as the managing director in October, said amid the challenging economic environment, the bank's deposit portfolio expanded significantly to reach around Tk 1.65 trillion at the end of December 2024, reflecting an increase of Tk 143.42 billion from the previous year's figure of around Tk 1.51 trillion.
The loan portfolio stood at Tk 991.81 billion though the outstanding figure saw a slight decrease due to adjustments of loans from government institutions at year-end.
Highlighting the success of its ongoing cash recovery drives, he said, the bank managed to recover Tk 11.70 billion from classified loans while Tk 0.59 billion was recovered from write-off loans in 2024. "We continue to take legal action as per the central bank's guidelines to recover loans from major defaulters like Hallmark," he added.
Sharing the bank's vision for 2025, Mr Shawkat said they have set a target to take the bank towards prosperity by improving service and fostering a customer-friendly environment. "We want to give top priority to CMSMEs and export-oriented businesses alongside promoting digital transformation," he said.
According to the official data, the bank posted a total income of Tk 151.46 billion against its total expense of Tk 95.12 billion in 2024. A significant portion of the income came from high-yielding government securities.
Regarding the significant profit achieved amid economic sluggishness, Executive Director (Monetary Policy Department) of Bangladesh Bank Dr Md Ezazul Islam said the central bank's decision not to go for devolvement in the auctions of treasury bills and bonds becomes a boon for many of the commercial banks even in the sluggish economic period.
This has allowed the commercial banks to meet the entire government bank borrowing appetites in recent months, he said.
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