Nine –month overall operating costs rose 12 percent to $60 million. Operating expenses constituted 40 percent of total costs, reaching $24 million, up 21 percent from the same period a year earlier. Staff expenses accounted to56 percent of overall expenses. It stood at $33 million at the end of September, up eight percent from a year earlier.

The bank said that loans and advances to customers grew by two percent to $1 billion in the first nine months of the year.Customer deposits rose 19 percent to $3 billion at the end of September.

Total assets stood at $3.95 billion at the end of September 30, 2009, the bank said.

The bank has 58 branches and employs 1,193 people.