Banque BEMO published its unaudited financial statements for the first nine months of 2020 conveying a net after-tax profit of $0.54 million compared to a profit of $12.74 million in the same period last year. In details, the bank’s net interest income rose by 2.32% y-o-y to $34.46 million, while net commission & fee income fell by 21.90% to $3.56 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, Banque BEMO registered net gains on financial instruments & other operating income of $9.60 million. It is worth noting that Banque BEMO constituted provisions on expected credit losses of just below $17 million for the first nine months of 2020, compared to $2.24 million in the same period in 2019, resulting in a 23.53% y-o-y drop in net operating income to $30.63 million. The drop in net operating income was met by a 0.93% increase in total operating expenses to $26.13 million. On the balance sheet front, Banque BEMO's total assets soared by 28.75% during the first nine months of 2020 to nearly $2.19 billion, mainly owing to an astronomical increase in cash, compulsory reserves and central banks by nearly 110% to $1.30 billion which outweighed the 21.78% drop in net loans & advances to $418.82 million. On the liabilities side, customer deposits rose by 33.76% during the first nine months of 2020 to $1.62 billion. In this context, the bank’s ratio of net loans to customer deposits receded to 25.80% at end of September 2020, with shareholder’s equity ending the period 13.81% higher at $186.47 million.