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Excess liquidity punishes banks

State banks on the forefront

Sajjadur Rahman
State owned banks bear the weight of excess liquidity more than private banks because of sluggish investment demand.
The country's banking sector is comprised of 48 banks — 30 private, 9 foreign, 4 state-owned and 5 specialised - - all with large deposit bases.
Surplus liquidity reached Tk 34,762 crore in June 2009 from Tk 12,989 in June 2008, the finance minister said in parliament recently.
Loan against deposits stood at 59 percent for state banks against 87 percent for private banks, thus depicting a gloomy investment scenario for the government owned banks, according to central bank data.
Private banks are witnessing greater transactions than state banks despite higher interest rates and charges.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith said the high quality of quick services, diversified products and prompt loan disposals are some factors that contributed to the rise in the number of private bank clients.
The four state-owned commercial banks -Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali - - play a domi -nant role in the industry because of strong asset and deposit bases and countrywide networks. But onslaught of the ongoing global recession and poor energy situation in the country has negatively affected profitability of all banks.
Despite efforts, private banks are constantly outperforming state owned banks, according to bankers.
“We are not sitting idle. All our branches have been directed to seek new invesunent options, such as farm and small and medium
enterprise (SME) sectors,” said Syed Abu Naser Bukhtear Ahmed, chief executive officer and managing director of Agrani Bank.
SM Aminur Rahman, managing director of Janata Bank, prefers investment in relatively safer instruments rather than commercial lending.
“We invested in treasury bills and bonds along with extending loans for some big NGOs,” said Rahman.
Janata Bank has also made deposits in other banks. Rahman however said the main business for banks come from industrial credit.
According to Bangladesh Bank (BB) data, state-owned bank deposits reached Tk 83,992 crore in June 2009 - Sonali at about Tk 25,000 crore, Janata Tk 20,000 crore and Agrani Tk 15,000 crore -- while loans amounted to Tk 49,501.58 crore.
At the same time, private bank deposits stood at Tk 1,60,015 crore against Tk 1,38,776.39 crore in loans, according to BB data.
“Banks are not receiving large investment proposals. We have unutilised money worth nearly Tk 500 crore,” said the Agrani Bank CEO, blaming the energy crisis for the lack in investment demand. He is however upbeat on revival In the fourth quarter of2009.
On the same note, the Janata Bank MD said, "The gloomy situation is bound to pick up in the last quarter of2009."
“Investors have observed the situation for several months and now they will come up with investment options."
Regarding the prevailing energy crisis, Rahman said industries have started generating power for their own use.
sajjad@thedailystar net