The banking sector's net profit dropped around 17 percent year-on-year in 2014 to Tk 5,993 crore on the back of mounting bad loans which necessitated large provisioning.

The banks last year made operational profit of Tk 21,265 crore, from which Tk 9,037 crore was deducted as tax and Tk 6,238 crore as provisioning against bad loans, according to central bank statistics.

Of the 56 banks, UK-based Standard Chartered Bank recorded the highest profits last year: their operating profit was Tk 1,742 crore and net profit Tk 1,098 crore.

Another foreign bank, HSBC, came in the second position with their net profit of Tk 579 crore and operating profit of Tk 969 crore.

The private and foreign banks saw their net profits rise last year, by 21 percent and 17 percent respectively.

The 48 private banks altogether clocked in operating profits of Tk 14,941 crore, of which Tk 6,350 crore was taken off as tax and Tk 2,881 crore for provisioning.

After the deductions, the banks logged in net profit of Tk 5,711 crore.

The foreign banks' operating profit in 2014 was Tk 3,134 crore; Tk 1,331 crore was taken off as tax and Tk 99 crore as provisioning. After the subtractions, their net profit stood at Tk 1,704 crore.

Of the state banks, four -- Janata, Sonali, Rupali and Agrani -- made net profit of Tk 1,304 crore in 2014, which is an increase of 4.57 percent over the previous year.

But the group was pulled down by BASIC Bank, which made a net loss of Tk 2,686 crore last year and operating loss of Tk 111 crore. A high official of the bank said there was a greater need for provisioning, due to which their losses became bigger.

The five state banks, as a result, collectively ended up in the red for the year: the statistics showed they altogether made a net loss of Tk 1,381 crore.

Three other government-owned specialised banks last year made total operating profit of Tk 8 crore. However, their net loss was around Tk 42 crore mainly due to a large amount of loss by Krishi Bank. Krishi Bank's net loss was Tk 185 crore in 2014.

Meanwhile, Helal Ahmed Chowdhury, former managing director of Pubali Bank, told The Daily Star that bad loans of many banks came down thanks to monitoring by the central bank.

“The good news is that the banking sector's bad loans decreased last year to single digits.