The Bangladesh Bank's (BB) annual report released yesterday showed that in FY '05 the BB made a profit of Tk 18.9 billion, which was Tk 9.4 billion in the previous year.

In FY '05, the BB's total income stood at Tk 24.9 billion, up by 18.6 percent from that in the previous year. The bank's income from foreign sources rose by 76 percent while the income from domestic sources saw a 25 percent rise during the period.

Regarding the increased income from foreign resources, the BB report identified rise in foreign investment as well as rate of interest thereon. Again, decline in the BB's expenditure that came down by 48.3 percent from the previous year also contributed to the BB's swollen profit.

"The decrease in expenditure was mainly due to decline in provision for loan losses," the report said.

The report also showed how the BB profit was distributed. Of the profit, Tk 10.9 billion and Tk 0.4 billion were transferred to foreign exchange revaluation reserve and gold and silver revaluation reserve respectively, while the surplus amount of Tk 7.6 billion was transferred to the government account.

Analysing the overall banking situation in the country as of end 2004, the BB ranked the commercial banks according to which 12 banks were rated 'strong', 15 banks 'satisfactory', 10 banks 'fair', 8 'marginal' and 4 'unsatisfactory'. All the four nationalised commercial banks (NCBs) were ranked 'marginal'.

The report also said expenses per employee of the NCBs were Tk 182,300 and the development financial institutions (DFIs) Tk 201,600 in 2004. The NCBs and DFIs incurred loss in 2004 and their losses per employee were Tk 15,600 and Tk 12,600.

The profit of private commercial banks (PCBs) per employee was Tk 270,800 against expenses of Tk 48,400. The expenses of foreign commercial banks (FCBs) per employees were as high as Tk 2 million against per employee profit of Tk 2.5 million in 2004, the report said.

The BB report also said operating expenses of NCBs in 2004 increased by Tk 0.5 billion from the previous year. In case of PCBs, the operating expenses rose by Tk 2.2 billion during the same period with the increase in number of their branches by 40.

Expenses of the DFIs also increased from Tk 2.9 billion in 2003 to Tk 3.2 billion in 2004. Expenses of FCBs increased in 2004 by Tk 0.1 billion over 2003, it added.

Bank assoc meets governor

Meanwhile, a delegation of Bangladesh Association of Banks (BAB) led by its President Syed Manzur Elahi met the BB governor and placed different demands.

The BAB leaders urged the governor to rationalise the BB's latest decision with regard to reporting of cash transaction of Tk5 lakh and above to the central bank.