COVID-19 Pandemic, Profitability, and Adaptability : Empirical Evidence from the South Asian Economy

This paper has tried to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on profitability and how organisations can adapt to the pandemic to lessen its impact, based on a South Asian economy, Bangladesh. To determine the impact, profitability measures (both book- and market-based) of 30 listed banks are compared between pre-COVID and COVID lockdown periods. An in-depth interview is conducted to understand the effects and adaptation process. It is found that COVID-19 has a significant negative impact on profitability, evidenced by the decrease in average NIM, ROE, ROA, and share price by 151%, 67%, 71%, and 7.42%, respectively. All (100%) of the interviewees have mentioned that the pandemic hurts profitability. The underlying reasons for the decrease in profitability are – economic downturn, interest rate ceiling, less investment opportunity, liquidity crisis, high medical expenditure, and fewer savings. To adapt to the pandemic, banks are integrating market, technology, knowledge, and management system adaptability