National Bank Limited (NBL) established in 1983 with an authorised capital of Tk 100 million and paid up capital of Tk 44 million. It started banking operations on 23 March 1983. On 31 December 2000, the bank's authorised and paid up capital were Tk 1,000 million and Tk 430 million respectively. The three types of shareholders of the bank are Group-A (Bangladeshi sponsors owning 50%), group-B (government of Bangladesh and public sector financial institutions owning 5%) and group-C (general public owning 45%). In 2000, the shareholders' equity was Tk 1,556.48 million and reserve funds Tk 982 million.

The bank conducts commercial banking activities including deposit mobilisation, lending, servicing domestic and foreign trade and remittance services. The bank introduced credit card and master card for both internal and international use. It has a deposit insurance scheme and a monthly deposit project to encourage the public to save more.

In December 2000, the total deposits at the bank were Tk 22,810 million, which comprised current and other deposits (Tk 7,177.54 million), savings deposits (Tk 4,217.71 million), bearer certificates of deposit (Tk 282.97 million), and time deposits (Tk 11,131.81 million). Total loans and advances of the bank were Tk 657.87 million and total loans and advances through rolling over were Tk 18,553.7 million. The portfolio of loans and advances included secured overdraft (Tk 5,332.56 million), cash credit (Tk 4,311.44 million), general loans (Tk 4,090.38), house building loans (Tk 489.25 million), loans against trust receipts (Tk 245.06 million), payment against documents (Tk 287.14 million), consumer credit scheme (Tk 60.84 million), inland bills purchased (Tk 723.33 million), foreign bills purchased and discounted (Tk 574.34 million), and other loans and advances (Tk 2,439.31 million). Major lending areas of the bank include large and medium scale, and small and cottage industries, trade credit, working capital finance, housing, transport and communication, servicing of imports and exports and other trading and non-trading activities.

The bank has a huge amount of non-performing loans and advances and the total amount of classified loans stood at Tk 5,796.2 million in 2000. The bank has to maintain large amount of provision for the classified loans from its profits. On the other hand, non-recovery of stuck-up loans and interest thereon inflated the interest suspense account of the bank. Thus the interest income of the bank from loans and advances was largely squeezed to affect the overall profitability of the bank.

Foreign exchange business handled by the bank in 2000 was Tk 25,978 million which comprised export servicing (Tk 9,400 million), import financing (Tk 12,000 million), and remittance services (Tk 1,988 million). The bank has correspondent relationships with 155 foreign banks and other financial institutions.

As on 31 December 2000, the bank's investments other than lending were Tk 2,626.63 million, which comprised treasury bills (Tk 1,920 million), prize bonds (Tk 7.34 million), debenture (Tk 198.21 million), long-term bonds (Tk 350 million), and shares (Tk 151.02 million). It earned interest incomes of Tk 186.93 million on the above investments during the year 2000.

Assets of the bank were valued at Tk 38,079.2 million in 2000. Aggregate of off-balance sheet items included in the total assets in the year was Tk 15,866.66 million. As on 31 December 2000, the bank's return on assets and total incomes were 2.5% and Tk 2,993.1 million respectively. Total operating expenses on the same date was Tk 2,041 million that resulted in a net profit after making all adjustments of Tk 1,348.8 million.

The management of the bank is vested in a 16-member board of directors with the managing director as the chief executive. In 2001, the bank had 66 branches (urban-53 and rural-13) and 1,878 employees. Its head office is at Dhaka. [S M Mahfuzur Rahman]