Siddique Islam

The market share of state-owned commercial banks (SCBs) squeezed slightly while private banks managed to increase shares in 2009, the central bank has said.

"In 2009, SCBs held 28.6 per cent of total industry assets as against 31.1 per cent in 2008. PCBs' share rose to 57.4 per cent in 2009 as against 54.2 per cent in 2008," the Bangladesh Bank (BB) said in its annual report for fiscal year 2009-2010, released Wednesday last.

Foreign commercial banks (FCBs) held 7.4 per cent of the industry assets in 2009, showing a declining trend over the previous year.

Shares of assets held by foreign banks came down to 7.4 per cent in 2009 from 8.0 per cent of the previous year, according to the report.

However, shares of assets of the government-owned development finance institutions (DFIs) were 6.6 per cent in 2009 against 6.7 per cent in 2008.

"The market share of PCBs is increasing gradually mainly due to their aggressive banking while SCBs' share decreased because of government-directed lending," former managing director of Agrani Bank Limited Syed Abu Naser Bukhtear Ahmed told the FE Friday.

He also said PCBs are giving priority to corporate clients while FCBs are providing their services mainly to multinational corporations.

"The customer base of SCBs is increasing but the volume of businesses hasn't expanded at the desired level as they are providing credit primarily to agriculture and SME (small and medium enterprises) sectors," the senior banker said.

Total deposits of the banks rose to Tk 3037.6 billion in 2009, from Tk 2561.4 billion in 2008 showing an overall increase by 18.6 per cent.

Four SCBs' share in deposits decreased by 1.0 percent point to 28.6 per cent in 2009 from 29.6 per cent of the previous calendar year, the BB data showed.

On the other hand, 30 PCBs' deposits in 2009 amounted to Tk 1792.4 billion or 59.0 per cent of the total industry deposit against Tk 1450.7 billion or 56.6 percent in 2008.

Nine FCBs' deposits in 2009 rose only by Tk 0.9 billion over the year.

In 2009, the four DFIs' deposits were Tk 161.1 billion against Tk 137.8 billion in 2008 showing an increase of 16.9 per cent over the year.

Currently, a total of 47 banks with 7246 branches are operating their business across the country.

News: The Financiale Xpress / Bangladesh/ jan-29-2011