Bank of Beirut profits up

Larger charges for doubtful loans

Bank of Beirut has announced profits for the first half of 2013 at $60 million, up from $52 million for the same period in 2012. Interest income has surged by 20 percent, whereas commission income increased by 3.7 percent.

Charges for credit losses reached $7.5 million, representing around six times what had been allocated in last year’s first semester. But bad debts written off and put off the balance sheet have slightly decreased to $37 million.

Total assets and customer deposits have surged over 16 percent year on year (June 2012 to June 2013) to $11.5 billion and almost $10 billion, respectively. Loans increased by 9.5 percent to $3.5 billion.

Bank of Beirut is now present in eight countries besides Lebanon. Most of these foreign implementations are in developed or low-risk countries. Its largest entities abroad are in Australia (16 branches) and Oman.