Foreign banks posted sluggish net profits last year mainly due to political turmoil that forced them to set aside a significant portion of their income to deal with bad loans.
Their net profit rose only 2.63 percent year-on-year to Tk 1,615 crore in 2013, according to finance ministry statistics.
But in 2012, the growth in their net profit was 16.50 percent, and the amount stood at Tk 1,573 crore.
The foreign banks made a gross profit of Tk 3,098 crore last year, according to a Banking Division report placed in parliament along with budget documents on June 5.
Banks calculate their net profit by deducting tax and provisioning against default loans from the gross profit.
In 2013, the foreign banks paid Tk 1,267.80 crore in taxes from their gross profit.
Last year, many state and private banks got their bad loans rescheduled under Bangladesh Bank's relaxed loan rescheduling policy. But most of the foreign banks did not take the opportunity and had to go for provisioning against bad loans.
In 2013, Standard Chartered Bank made provision of Tk 170 crore for bad loans, more than double the previous year's amount at Tk 81 crore.
State Bank of India had to set aside Tk 40 crore for bad loans in 2013, a tenfold increase from a year ago.
The foreign banks' income rose by only 9 percent in 2013 over the previous year, according to the Banking Division report.
However, their expenditure went up by more than 15 percent. As imports fell last year, income of these banks from import trade decreased by around 0.60 percent.
In 2013, the foreign banks accounted for around 7.3 percent of the total asset in the banking sector.  
Of the major foreign banks, Standard Chartered's net profit rose 14 percent to Tk 896 crore in 2013, compared to the previous year.
The net profit of State Bank of India slumped 68 percent and stood at only Tk 24 crore. Citibank NA's net profit fell 34 percent to around Tk 86 crore.
In recent times, two Pakistan-based banks have been suffering losses every year and counted losses last year as well.
Profits of private banks, which control 60 percent of the total banking assets, also saw a slim growth last year.
The private banks' total operating profit rose 8.75 percent year-on-year to Tk 12,209 crore in 2013, when they made a combined net profit of Tk 5,536 crore.