Kathmandu. The return on investment (ROE) of commercial banks has improved overall in the current financial year. The average ROE of the 20 commercial banks stood at 8.68 percent as of mid-April of the current fiscal year, up 0.82 percent from 7.86 percent in the same period last year.

However, the performance of all banks is not the same. During the review period, the ROE of 7 commercial banks decreased while the rest of the banks improved. The banks that have seen the reduction in ROE are Agricultural Development Bank, Everest Bank, Global IME Bank, Nepal Bank, Nepal Investment Mega Bank, Prabhu Bank and Standard Chartered Nepal. A drop in the returns of these banks could indicate that there are challenges in aspects such as their earnings, operating expenses, or credit quality.

On the other hand, the rest of the banks have improved their ROE by increasing their profitability.  Kumari Bank has improved the ROE the most during this period. The bank’s ROE increased by 12.32 percent to 13.40 percent. In the same period of the last FY, the share of the bank was only 1.08 percent.