Banks earned Rs176 billion profit in the July-Sept quarter of this calendar year, recording a 44 per cent increase over the same quarter of the last year.
The State Bank, in its Quarterly Compendium (July-Sept 2014) issued on yesterday, stated that banks’ investment (mostly in government papers) increased by 148pc compared to the same quarter of last year.
The growth rate of net investment jumped to 17.1pc in September 2014 compared to 6.9pc in the corresponding quarter last year.
The central bank observed that the banking sector witnessed a substantial improvement during the July-September 2014.
The return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) rose to 1.4pc and 15.9pc respectively up from 1.1pc and 12.3pc a year earlier.
The reports showed that the banks earned most of their income from their investment in the government papers which did not change some important variables.