ABSTRACT Central banks around the world typically use various financial indicators to evaluate performance. In Iraq, the indicators used by central banks to evaluate the performance of banks are of great importance to ensure that the banks operating within the Iraqi banking system comply with the regulatory and legal requirements issued by the Central Bank of Iraq or the Ministry of Finance. Given the need to study the profitability indicator to ensure its ability to evaluate the performance of specialized banks in Iraq, these banks carry out their banking activities and businesses through capital funded by the government. The use of profitability indicators in evaluating the performance of specialized banks provides information about the profitability resulting from the activities of these banks, but it does not indicate whether they have achieved their developmental goals, as generating profits is one of the goals that commercial banks aspire to achieve. Based on the assumption that compliance with the profitability indicator has a negative impact on specialized banks' ability to achieve their developmental goals, the research aims to shed light on the requirements of performance evaluation indicators, with profitability indicators being one of its important tools in the performance evaluation process. To prove this hypothesis, researchers evaluated the performance of specialized banks using the profitability indicator, and then analyzed those results to determine their impact on the possibility of achieving the banks' developmental goals. The study concluded several important findings, including that the profitability indicator does not align with the objectives of specialized banks and significantly hinders their ability to achieve their developmental goals, represented by developing the three sectors: agricultural, industrial, and real estate. Furthermore, the research results led to a number of recommendations that the entities responsible for performance evaluation should adopt when evaluating the performance of specialized banks.