Bank of Beirut published its unaudited financial statements this week conveying a 5.32% annual drop in net after tax profit to $118.02 million in the first nine months of the year 2019, down from $124.64 million during that same period in 2018. In details, net interest income plunged by 12.04% y-o-y to $203.17 million with net gains on financial instruments & other operating income dropping by 9.75% on a yearly basis to $15.50 million, while net commission & fee income rose by 3.97% to $80.36 million. This, however, was partially offset by a $13.09 million write-back of credit loss expenses in the first nine months of 2019 leading to a 4.07% annual contraction in the bank’s net operating income to $307.11 million. The bank managed, however, to cut its total operating expenses by 1.81% y-o-y to $164.45 million during the first nine months of 2019. On the balance sheet front, Bank of Beirut’s total assets narrowed by 0.76% YTD September 2019 to just below $17.60 billion, mainly owing to some 10.10% dive in net loans & advances to about $5.35 billion coupled with an 11.33% contraction in debt instruments at amortized cost to $4.51 billion outweighing some 21.12% hike in cash and placements with central banks to $5.74 billion. Customer deposits at Bank of Beirut also fell by 3.32% by September to $12.97 billion, with the ratio of net loans to customer deposits dipping to 41.24%, from 44.35% at end of 2018. On the capitalization front, the bank’s shareholders’ equity rose by 1.33% to $1.81 billion as at end of September. Bank of Beirut unveiled in a footnote that it has revisited its year 2018 financial figures after having netted LBP-denominated loans granted by Banque Du Liban (BDL) and corresponding placements of the equivalent amounts with the latter in accordance with IFRS 9 requirements, and after having halted the consolidation of the financial statements of investment funds as per IAS 10.