Bank of Beirut published its unaudited financial statements for the first half of the year 2020 conveying a net after tax loss of $0.57 million, compared to a profit of $65.89 million during the first half of 2019. In details, the bank’s net interest income increased by 44.68% y-o-y to $169.30 million and wrote-back provisions for expected credit losses for an amount of $243.42 million. This, however, was offset by the 65.61% contraction in net commission & fee income to $17.90 million and the sizeable drop in net gains on financial instruments & other operating income to a loss of $312.95 million, leading to a 39.12% annual contraction in the bank’s net operating income to $115.56 million. Total operating expenses fell by 3.93% y-o-y to $105.59 million during the first half of 2020. On the balance sheet front, Bank of Beirut’s total assets narrowed by 10.52% during the first half of the year 2020 to just above $14.58 billion, mainly owing to some 13.91% drop in net loans & advances to about $4.28 billion coupled with a 7.42% contraction in cash and placements with central banks to $5.68 billion. Customer deposits at Bank of Beirut also fell by 12.34% in H1-2020 to $10.77 billion, with the ratio of net loans to customer deposits narrowing to 39.73%, from 40.45% at end of 2019. On the capitalization front, the bank’s shareholders’ equity increased by 0.80% in the first six months of the current year to $1.59 billion.