Bank of Beirut released its unaudited financial statements for the year 2022, revealing a net loss of $401.71 million as at end of year, compared to a profit of $3.29 million in 2021. In fact, the bank’s net interest income rose by 3.43% y-o-y to $487.69 million, while net commission & fee income fell by 56.32% to $28.63 million. Concurrently, Bank of Beirut reported net losses on financial assets & other operating income of $596.89 million (of which some $581.61 million in the form of other operating losses). In addition, provisions for expected credit losses contracted significantly to $1.86 million compared to $51.44 million in 2021. Consequently, the bank registered a net operating loss of $85.55 million in comparison with a net operating income of $239.81 million in 2021. In parallel, the bank’s operating expenses increased by 43.06% y-o-y to $310.72 million. More specifically, personnel expenses saw a sharp 60.55% increase to $180.04 million and other operating expenses soared by 37.09% to $113.71 million. On the balance sheet front, Bank of Beirut’s consolidated assets contracted by 5.92% in 2022 to circa $11.37 billion as the 23.14% drop in net loans & advances to just above $2.36 billion outweighed the 7.93% increase in cash & balances with Central Banks to $6.09 billion. Bank of Beirut’s financial assets at FVTPL rose by 1.64% in 2022 to $8.27 million, with those booked at fair value through other comprehensive income (FVTOCI) contracting by 90.44% to $3.85 million and financial assets booked at amortized cost decreasing by 23.29% to just above $2.34 billion. Customer deposits at Bank of Beirut sustained their downturn, dropping by 3.34% in 2022 to just above $9.29 billion. In this context, the bank’s ratio of net loans-to-customer deposits settled lower at 25.47% at end of December 2022 compared to 32.04% a year earlier, with shareholders’ equity ending the period down by 32.18% at $0.91 billion.