Table of Contents

Contents

INTRODUCTION......................................................................................3

BRIEF OVERVIEW...................................................................................4BANGLADESH BANK.........................................................................4SERVICES..............................................................................................5

CURRENT ACCOUNT......................................................................5SAVINGS BANK ACCOUNT...........................................................5INTERNET BANKING......................................................................5AUTOMATED TELLER MACHINE (ATM)....................................6TELE BANKING................................................................................6

ANALYSIS................................................................................................7Performance of Banking Sector..............................................................7Balance Sheet Performance.....................................................................7

Assets...................................................................................................7Liabilities.............................................................................................8

Performance and Rating of Banks...........................................................8Capital Adequacy.................................................................................8Asset Quality.......................................................................................9Management Soundness....................................................................11Earnings and Profitability..................................................................11Liquidity............................................................................................12CAMELS Rating...............................................................................13

CONCLUSION........................................................................................15

REFERENCE...........................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION

The Jews in Jerusalem introduced a kind of banking in the form of money lending

before the birth of Christ. The word 'bank' was probably derived from the word

'bench' as during ancient time Jews used to do money -lending business sitting on

long benches.

First modern banking was introduced in 1668 in Stockholm as 'Svingss Pis Bank'

which opened up a new era of banking activities throughout the European Mainland.

In the South Asian region, early banking system was introduced by the Afghan traders

popularly known as ‘Kabuliwallas’. Muslim businessmen from Kabul, Afghanistan

came to India and started money lending business in exchange of interest sometime in

1312 A.D. They were known as ‘Kabuliwallas’.

In Bangladesh, after its independence in 1971, Bangladesh Bank was formed as the

Central Bank of Bangladesh in 1972. It is responsible for monitoring all the banks and

also setting up rules and guidelines for the banks.

In this report, I will look to put forward the analysis on the performance of the

Commercial Banks of Bangladesh. This analysis will be done with the overall

scenario of all the banks in Bangladesh

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BRIEF OVERVIEW

The number of banks now stands at 52 in Bangladesh. Out of the 52 banks, four are

state-owned commercial banks (SCBs), 30 private commercial banks (PCBs), 9

foreign commercial banks (FCBs) and the rest 9 are Development Financial

Institutions (DFIs).

Sonali Bank is the largest among the SCBs while Pubali is leading in the private ones.

Among the 9 foreign banks, Standard Chartered has become the largest in the country.

Besides the scheduled banks, Samabai (Cooperative) Bank, Ansar-VDP Bank,

Karmasansthan (Employment) Bank and Grameen bank are functioning in the

financial sector. The number of total branches of all scheduled banks is 6717 branches

as of December 2007. The number of bank branches increased from 6562 to 6717

owing to opening of new branches by the PCBs during the year.

BANGLADESH BANK

Bangladesh Bank (BB) has been working as the central bank since the country's

independence. Its prime jobs include issuing of currency, maintaining foreign

exchange reserve and providing transaction facilities of all public monetary matters.

Bangladesh Bank is also responsible for planning the government's monetary policy

and implementing it thereby.

The BB has a governing body comprising of nine members with the Governor as its

chief. Apart from the head office in Dhaka, it has nine more branches, of which two in

Dhaka and one each in Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Bogra, Sylhet, Rangpur and

Barisal.

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SERVICESCURRENT ACCOUNT

Generally this sort of account opens for business purpose. Customers can withdraw

money once or more against their deposit. No interest can be paid to the customers in

this account. If the amount of deposit is below taka 1,000 on an average the bank has

authority to cut taka 50 from each account as incidental charge after every six months.

Against this account loan facility can be ensured. Usually one can open this account

with taka 500. One can open this sort of account through cash or check/bill. All the

banks follow almost the same rules for opening current account.

SAVINGS BANK ACCOUNT

Usually customers open this sort of account at a low interest for only security. This is

also an initiative to create people's savings tendency. Generally, this account is to be

opened at taka 100. Interest is to be paid in June and December after every six

months. If money is withdrawn twice a week or more than taka 10,000 is withdrawn

(if 25% more compared to total deposit) then interest is not paid. This account

guarantees loan. Almost all the banks follow the same rules in the field of savings

account, except foreign banks for varying deposit..

INTERNET BANKING

Customers need an Internet access service. As an Internet Banking customer, he will

be given a specific user ID and a confident password. The customer can then view his

account balances online. It is the industry-standard method used to protect

communications over the Internet. To ensure that customers' personal data cannot be

accessed by anyone but them, all reporting information has been secured using

Version and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

4

AUTOMATED TELLER MACHINE (ATM)

Automated Teller Machine (ATM), a new concept in modern banking, has already

been introduced to facilitate subscribers 24 hour cash access through a plastic card.

The network of ATM installations has already been extended to enable customers to

non-branch banking beyond banking.

TELE BANKING

Tele Banking allows customers to get access into their respective banking information

24 hours a day. Subscribers can update themselves by making a phone call. They can

transfer any amount of deposit to other accounts irrespective of location either from

home or office.

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ANALYSIS

Performance of Banking Sector

In 2007, the state-owned commercial banks (SCBs) held 33.1 percent of the total

industry assets as against 32.7 percent in 2006. PCBs' share rose to 51.4 percent in

2007 as against 47.7 percent in 2006. The foreign commercial banks held 8.2 percent

of the industry assets in 2007, showing a declining trend by 3.6 percentage point over

the previous year. The DFIs' share of assets was 7.3 percent in 2007 against 7.8

percent in 2006. Total deposits of the banks in 2007 increased by 15.5 percent to Taka

2148.9 billion from Taka 1860.6 billion in 2006. The SCBs' (comprising largest 4

banks) share in deposits decreased from 35.2 percent in 2006 to 32.6 percent in 2007.

On the other hand, PCBs' deposits in 2007 amounted to Taka 1150.2 billion or 53.5

percent of the total industry deposit against Taka 955.5 billion or 51.3 percent in

2006. FCBs' deposits in 2007 rose by Taka 32.6 billion or 21.6 percent over the

previous year. The DFIs' deposits in 2007 were Taka 115.6 billion against Taka 100.2

billion in 2006 showing an increase of 15.4 percent over the year.

So from the above information, we can say that in terms of deposits, PCBs, FCBs and

DFIs have all experienced an increase in deposits compared to the previous years and

only SCBs have experienced a slight decrease in deposits.

Balance Sheet Performance

AssetsAggregate industry assets in 2007 registered an overall increase by 15.3 percent over

2006. During this period, SCBs' assets increased by 16.7 percent and those of the

PCBs rose by 24.3 percent. Loans and advances played a major role on the uses of

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fund. Loans and advances amounting to Taka 1724.3 billion out of aggregate assets of

Taka 2773.9 billion constituted significant portion (62.2 percent).

LiabilitiesThe aggregate liability portfolio of the banking industry in 2007 was Taka 2773.9

billion of which deposits constituted Taka 2148.9 billion or 77.5 percent and

continued to be the main sources of fund of banking industry. Capital and reserves of

the banks were Taka 180.0 billion or 6.5 percent of aggregate liabilities in 2007, as

against Taka 122.9 billion or 5.1 percent in 2006.

Performance and Rating of Banks

Performance of the banking sector under CAMELS framework, which involves

analysis, and evaluation of the six crucial dimensions of banking operations, has been

discussed in this chapter. The six indicators used in the rating system are (i) Capital

adequacy, (ii) Asset quality, (iii) Management soundness, (iv) Earnings, (v) Liquidity

and (vi) Sensitivity to market risk.

Capital AdequacyCapital adequacy focuses on the total position of bank capital and protects the

depositors from the potential shocks of losses that a bank might incur. It helps

absorbing major financial risks (like credit risk, market risk, foreign exchange risk,

interest rate risk and risk involved in off-balance sheet operations). Banks in

Bangladesh have to maintain a minimum Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) of not less

than 10.0 percent of their risk-weighted assets (with at least 5.0 percent in core

capital) or Taka 2.0 billion, whichever is higher. As on 31 December 2007, the SCBs,

DFIs, PCBs & FCBs maintained CAR of 7.9, -5.5, 10.6 and 22.7 percent respectively.

The CAR of SCBs showed 7.9 percent in 2007 after transferring the cumulative loss

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for Taka 87.9 billion by creating goodwill (valuation adjustments account) at the time

of corporatization of 3 SCBs. The valuation adjustment account will be amortised

within 10 years. Meanwhile, the CAR of DFIs stood at -5.5 percent in 2007 after

adjusting the cumulative losses of Taka 24.8 billion of Bangladesh Krishi Bank

(BKB) and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB). The adjusted CAR of DFIs in

2005 and 2006 also stood at -7.5 percent and -6.7 percent considering their

cumulative losses of Taka 21.9 billion and Taka 24.4 billion respectively. 5 PCBs

(including 2 problem banks) also could not maintain required CAR in 2007. FCBs

maintained 22.7 percent CAR in 2007 though 6 FCBs out of 9 FCBs could not

maintain minimum capital for Taka 2.0 billion but they were permitted to adjust those

shortfall within 30 June 2009. The CAR of the banking industry was 9.6 percent in

2007 as against 6.7 percent in 2006. The CAR of the industry showed downturn in

2005 due to the adjustment of cumulative losses by the DFIs and thereafter it has

increased further positively.

Asset QualityThe asset composition of all scheduled banks shows the concentration of loans and

advances (62.2 percent as of December 2007). The high concentration of loans and

advances indicates vulnerability of assets to credit risk, especially since the portion of

non-performing assets is significant. A huge non-performing loan portfolio has been

the major predicament of banks particularly of the state-owned banks. In the total

assets the share of loans and advances is followed by the investment in Government

securities covering 13.7 percent. The most important indicator intended to identify

problems with asset quality in the loan portfolio is the percentage of gross and net

nonperforming loans (NPLs) to total advances. FCBs have the lowest and SCBs have

the highest ratio of NPLs. SCBs have gross NPLs to total Loans of 29.9 percent

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whereas in case of PCBs, FCBs and DFIs, the ratios are 5.0, 1.4 and 28.6 percent

respectively. Similarly NPLs net of provisions and interest suspense to the total loans

is 12.9, 1.4 and 19.0 percent for SCBs, PCBs and DFIs respectively. FCBs are having

excess provision for loan losses.

The ratio of NPL to total loans of all the banks shows an encouraging trend since its

decline from the peak (41.1 percent) in 1999, although the aggregate ratio was still as

high as 13.2 percent in December 2007. The reason is being very high NPL of the

SCBs and the DFIs. The SCBs and DFIs continue to have very high NPLs mainly due

to substantial loans provided by them on considerations other than commercial and

under directed credit programmes during the 70s and 80s. Poor appraisal and

inadequate follow-up and weak supervision of the loans disbursed by the SCBs and

DFIs in the past eventually resulted in large amount of poor quality assets which still

continue to remain significant in the portfolio of these banks. Furthermore, the banks

were reluctant to write off the historically bad loans because of poor quality of

underlying collaterals. Recovery of NPLs however witnessed some signs of

improvement; mainly because of the steps taken with regard to internal restructuring

of these banks to strengthen their loan recovery mechanism and recovery drive and

write off measures initiated in recent years.

The net non performing loansto total loans after adjustment of actual provision and

interest suspense stands at 12.9 percent (SCBs), 19.0 percent (DFIs), 1.4 percent

(PCBs) and 5.1 percent (banking sector) in 2007. SCBs' and DFIs' nonperforming

portfolio were still high after adjustment of actual provision and interest suspense,

whereas FCBs have excess provision on their classified loans.

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Management SoundnessSound management is the most important prerequisite for the strength and growth of

any financial institution. Since indicators of management quality are primarily

specific to individual institution, these cannot be easily aggregated across the sector.

In addition, it is difficult to draw any conclusion regarding management soundness on

the basis of monetary indicators, as characteristics of a good management are rather

qualitative in nature. Nevertheless, the total expenditure to total income, operating

expenses to total expenses, earnings and operating expenses per employee, and

interest rate spread are generally used to gauge management soundness. In particular,

a high and increasing expenditure to income ratio indicates the operating inefficiency

that could be due to flaws in management. Expenditure-income (EI) ratio of the DFIs

was very high at 175.3 percent in 2000. This was mainly because the DFIs made loan

loss provisions by debiting 'loss' in their books. The position however improved after

2000 and the ratio came down to 89.1 percent and 95.9 percent in 2001 and 2002

respectively but again rose to 101.1 percent in 2003 and later on 107.7 in 2007 due to

operating loss incurred by BKB & RAKUB. The EI ratio of the SCBs exceeded 100.0

percent in 2004; the ratio stood at 100.0 percent in 2007. Very high EI ratio of SCBs

was mainly attributable to high administrative and overhead expenses; suspension of

income against NPLs. EI ratio of PCBs is substantially high due to deduction of

provision for loans, other assets and corporate tax from current income.

Earnings and ProfitabilityStrong earnings and profitability profile of a bank reflect its ability to support present

and future operations. More specifically, this determines the capacity to absorb losses

by building an adequate capital base, finance its expansion and pay adequate

dividends to its shareholders. Although there are various measures of earnings and

profitability, the best and widely used indicator is return on assets (ROA), which is

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supplemented by return on equity (ROE) and net interest margin (NIM). Earnings as

measured by return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) vary largely within

the industry. Analysis of these indicators reveals that the ROA of the SCBs have been

almost zero percent considering huge provision shortfall and that of the DFIs even

worse. PCBs had an inconsistent trend but satisfactory and FCBs' return on assets

ratio has been consistently strong during last 8 years. SCBs return on equity ratio was

3.0 percent in 2003 but have been shown almost zero percent in 2007 considering

provision shortfall. In case of DFIs, the ROE position remained worse (-3.4 percent)

in 2007. The ROE of PCBs and FCBs were satisfactory in 2007. BKB, RAKUB and

Bangladesh Commerce Bank Ltd. incurred loss only due to their huge operating

expenses. Aggregate net interest income (NII) of the industry has been positive and

consistently increased from Taka 8.4 billion in 2000 to Taka 54.8 billion in 2007.

However, the NII of the SCBs sharply declined to a negative amount of Taka 1.2

billion in 2000. The trend continued and the SCBs' NII was -1.8 billion (2001) , -1.5

billion (2002), -0.3 billion (2003), -1.1 billion (2004) but in 2005 their positive NII

was Taka 7.7 billion and it was Taka 7.4 billion in 2007. The DFIs had a consistent

positive trend since 2000 and it was Taka 1.4 billion in 2007. Since 2005, SCBs have

been able to increase their net interest income (NII) by reducing their cost of fund.

The NII of the PCBs and FCBs has been very high over the period from 2000 through

2007. Overall industry NII shows a consistently upward trend. The trend of NII

indicates that the PCBs and the FCBs are charging interests at very high rates on their

lending as compared to the interest they are paying to the depositors.

LiquidityAt present the demand and time liabilities of the commercial banks are subject to a

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statutory liquidity requirement (SLR) of 18 percent inclusive of average 5 percent (at

least 4 percent in any day) cash reserve requirement (CRR) on bi-weekly basis. The

CRR is to be kept with the Bangladesh Bank and the remainder as qualifying secure

assets under the SLR, either in cash or in Government securities SLR for the banks

operating under the Islamic Shariah is 10 percent and the specialized banks are

exempted from maintaining the SLR. Liquidity indicators measured as percentage of

demand and time liabilities (excluding inter-bank items) of the banks indicate that all

the banks had excess liquidity.

CAMELS RatingPerformance indicators of the banking industry depict a trend similar to that of the

state-owned banks, which is understandable due to their predominant market share.

Ratings done on the basis of the various indicators discussed hereinbefore indicate

that financial performance of the PCBs and FCBs in general has been better than that

of the industry average. Under the Financial Sector Reform Programme, the

Bangladesh Bank strengthened the supervision and monitoring of the scheduled banks

since 1990. Any bank rated 4 or 5 i.e., 'Marginal' or 'Unsatisfactory' under composite

CAMELS rating is generally identified as Problem Bank. Activities of the problem

banks are closely monitored by the Central Bank. Bangladesh Bank issues directives

from time to time to the problem banks to bring them in good shape. Now there are

two problem banks and it is expected that in the near future under the proper

monitoring and guidance of Bangladesh Bank both the existing problem banks will

come out from the list of problem banks. To assess the degree to which a bank might

be exposed to adverse financial market conditions, the Bangladesh Bank added a new

characteristic named as "Sensitivity to market risk" to what was previously referred to

as the CAMEL rating. In particular, BB started placing much emphasis on banks

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sensitivity to interest rate movement through the introduction of revised CAMELS

rating system since 1 July 2006.

Bangladesh Bank introduced Early Warning System (EWS) of supervision from

March 2005 to address the difficulties faced by the banks in any of the areas of

CAMELS. Any bank found to have faced difficulty in any areas of operation, is

brought under Early Warning category and monitored very closely to help improve its

performance. Presently 8 banks are monitored under EW system. Interface of

dialogues with the management of scheduled banks have been organized in more

structured way to address various compliance issues those seem to be as early signal

to delinquent key performance areas in banking operation.

As of end 2007, CAMELS rating of 6 banks was 1 or Strong; 29 banks were rated 2

or Satisfactory; rating of 5 banks was 3 or Fair; 6 (including 4 SCBs) were rated 4 or

Marginal and 1 bank got 5 or Unsatisfactory rating.

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CONCLUSION

After analyzing the performance of the commercial banks of Bangladesh we can

conclude the following points. The commercial banks have experienced a increase in

performance in terms of deposit. In terms of assets, we can see that a increase of

15.3% and liabilities increased to around 46% in terms of capital and reserves of the

bank.

Again for capital adequacy ratio (CAR), in 2007 there was an increase in the overall

CAR of all the banks in comparison to 2006. As for the asset quality and judging it by

the nonperforming loans (NPLs) ration, the commercial banks have shown signs of

continuous improvement. Expenditure – income (EI) ration indicates that all the

banking sectors had high EI ration and that they can work to reduce the rates.

Return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) had different results for different

sectors. The net interest income (NII) of all the banking sectors has increased

consistently. And finally in CAMELS rating, we also see improvement in terms of

problem banks and also that Bangladesh Bank is continuously working on improving

the situations of the problem banks.

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REFERENCE

1. “Performance Evaluation of Selected Private Commercial Banks in Bangladesh”. Retrieved from www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijbm/article/view/1179/1127

2. Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banks_in_Bangladesh

3. Bangladesh Bank. Retrieved from www.bangladeshbank.org.bd

4. “Performance Measurement of Banks : An Application of Balanced Scorecard”. Retrieved from www.icmab.org.bd/20- Performance - Measurement -of- Banks -An-Application-of-Balanced-Scorecard.html

5. Other Data collected from different Commercial Banks sites.

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