Nepali commercial banks earned total profits of Rs 20.60 billion in the first four months of the current fiscal year, a nominal increase in the amount recorded in the same period in the last FY.
According to Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the commercial banks have secured profits of more than Rs 20 billion out of the total profits of Rs 22.99 billion earned by the banks and financial institutions. During mid-July and mid-November of FY 2023/24, the banks earned a total profit of Rs 20.56 billion.
As per the financial reports published by the banks, they earned additional Rs 4.54 billion just in the past one month. As of the first quarter this year, their profits stood at Rs 16.06 billion.
The slack in banks’ performance was due to a decline in their businesses in the review period. The banks have been facing the problems of having excessive liquidity due to low demand for loans, increasing bad debts and growing non-performing loans for almost over the past one year.
According to the NRB, commercial banks have collected deposits of Rs 5.905 trillion, while they have provided loans of Rs 4.715 trillion. While the non-performing loan of banks is recorded at an average of four percent, a number of banks have the ratio as high as 5.84 percent.
Out of the 20 commercial banks, Nabil Bank secured profits of Rs 2.16 billion, the largest of all. Global IME Bank with profits of Rs 1.94 billion was second in the row. Profits of Rastriya Banijya Bank, NIMB, Himalayan Bank, Everest Bank, NIC Asia Bank, Prabhu Bank, Prime Bank and NMB Bank also crossed Rs 1 billion.
