ICB Islamic Bank makes a profit for the first time in its history

The ICB Islamic Bank, deemed the 'problematic bank' since its inception, has finally managed to make a profit for the first time in its history.

In the April to June quarter of 2022, the bank's net profit stood at Tk10.09 crore and earnings per share (EPS) at Tk0.15.

But from January to June of this year, its net profit decreased to Tk1.23 crore and EPS to Tk0.02, year-on-year, owing to the January to March quarter's loss.

Muhammad Shafiq Bin Abdullah, the managing director of ICB Islamic Bank, told The Business Standard, "Right now, we are emphasising on fee-based incomes like Letter of Credit (LC), and Earnest Money Financing (EMF), and we have earned a lot from these type of investments which will continue for the upcoming years to support our solid income."

"Apart from product diversification, the bank now recovered the bad loan partially through the sole effort from the management, which also helped us to post a profit for the first time," he added.

ICB Islamic Bank's origins can be traced back to 1987 when it was operating under the moniker Al-Baraka Bank. In 1994, it became a 'problematic bank'. Then in 2004, it started functioning as a scheduled commercial bank under a new name, 'Oriental Bank'.

In June 2006, the Bangladesh Bank dissolved the board of directors of Oriental Bank after detecting massive corruption. To safeguard the interest of depositors, the central bank took over full control of the bank.

Then in August 2007, the central bank floated a tender to sell the majority of the bank's shares.

Two bidders participated in the tender, with Swiss ICB Group walking away with the stake. The bank was renamed ICB Islamic Bank in 2008.

Besides, the central bank also allowed the bank some time to gradually pay back depositors' money.

According to the annual report for 2021, its bad loans were 81% of the total disbursement, and the capital shortfall was Tk1,660 crore.

It got listed on the stock exchanges in 1990. At the end of Thursday's trading session, its shares closed at Tk5 each at the Dhaka Stock Exchange.