Twelve out of the 30 listed commercial banks witnessed fall in profits in the first quarter of 2015 compared with that in the same period of the previous year. According to the latest Dhaka Stock Exchange data, 17 listed banks, however, made higher profits in the January-March period of 2015 compared with that in the same period of 2014. NCC Bank is yet to disclose its Q1 financial results. Bank sources said political unrest in the January-March period of 2015 was the major reason for the decline in profits of the banks. They said the political turmoil affected the economy and the bank’s received fewer L/Cs and the collection was also slow because of the situation. ‘In the first quarter of this year there was political turmoil that affected the overall economy. And as a integral part of the economy the banking sector also paid its share,’ Eastern Bank managing director Ali Reza Iftekhar told New Age on Saturday. Eastern Bank’s profit declined to Tk 63.41 crore in Q1 of 2015 compared with that of Tk 71.33 crore in the same period of the previous year. ‘As things are getting back to normalcy, I am not much worried about the Q1 results. I hope we will turn around,’ he said. Prime Bank witnessed the biggest slump as the bank’s profit declined to Tk 78.21 crore in the January-March period from Tk 128.86 crore in the same period of the previous year. Pubali Bank also witnessed a slump in profit to Tk 17.70 crore in Q1 this year compared with that of Tk 55.68 crore in the same period of the previous year. ONE Bank’s profit, however, rose sharply to Tk 21.20 crore from that of Tk 5.14 crore in the same period of the previous year. Trust Bank’s profit also witnessed a sharp rise to Tk 49.77 crore in Q1 this year compared with that of Tk 20.37 crore in Q1 last year. Bangladesh Bank officials said collection of loans was slow in the opening quarter of 2015 because of the political unrest. According to the BB data, the overall defaulted loans rose to Tk 54,657.69 crore as of March 31, 2015 from Tk 50,155.77 crore as of December 31, 2014.