NRBC Bank gunning to impress in 2018

NRB Commercial Bank is gunning for an operating profit of Tk 250 crore in 2018 as the embattled bank looks to shake off the image crisis that befell towards the end of last year.

The fourth generation bank's operating profit in 2017 was Tk 200 crore, said Kazi Md Talha, the current charge of NRBC, at a press briefing held yesterday at the capital's Westin hotel following NRBC's annual conference.

NRBC's new Chairman Tamal SM Parvez presided over the annual conference.

"We are now getting back the depositors' confidence," Talha said.

The tendency of depositors pulling out their funds from the bank has stopped. Rather, in the last one month, Tk 200 crore of new deposits came in.

The institutional depositors who wanted to withdraw their deposits changed their mind and renewed their agreements.

The bank has set the target to collecting fresh deposit of Tk 1,300 crore in the new year to take its deposit base to the neighbourhood of Tk 6,000 crore.

Its deposit base at the end of last year was Tk 4,711 crore.  The bank will expand its loan portfolio to Tk 5,000 crore in 2018 from existing Tk 4,295 crore, Talha said.

The bank will put more focus on the SME sector, with the segment accounting for 50 percent of the total outstanding loans. At present, the SME sector accounts for 34 percent of NRBC's total loan portfolio.

In December last year, NRBC restructured its board of directors with the view to restoring corporate governance and depositors' confidence.

The new board headed by Parvez also sent the bank's Managing Director Dewan Mujibur Rahman on a three-month leave. Mohammad Shahid Islam has been made the vice-chairman, replacing Toufique Rahman Chowdhury.