Byblos Bank released its unaudited financial statements this week, reporting a net loss of just below $9 million in the first nine months of 2020, compared to a net profit of $87.68 million in the same period in 2019. In fact, the banks’ net interest income more than doubled y-o-y to $375.04 million, while net commission & fee income dropped by 10.08% to $64.44 million. The increase in net interest income owes to Central Bank directives to lower interest rates paid on customer deposits as per the provisions of intermediate circulars 536 and 544. In parallel, Byblos Bank registered net gains on the financial instruments’ portfolio & other operating income of $326.17 million as the bank booked some $264.17 million in other trading income. It is worth noting that Byblos Bank constituted provisions on expected credit losses of $554.81 million for the first nine months of 2020, compared to $17.24 million in the same period in 2019, resulting in a 26.02% y-o-y drop in net operating income to $210.78 million. The drop in net operating income was met by some 9.92% contraction in total operating expenses to $157.10 million. On the balance sheet front, Byblos Bank’s consolidated assets fell by 10.80% during the first nine months of 2020 to circa $19.55 billion as net loans & advances plunged by 36.04% to $2.86 billion, outweighing the 6.08% rise in cash and balances with Central Banks to $10.51 billion. In parallel, customer deposits fell by 11.27% YTD September 2020 to around $15.42 billion. In this context, the bank’s ratio of net loans-to-customer deposits settled lower at 18.54% at end of September 2020, with shareholder’s equity ending the period 2.65% lower at $1.62 billion.