Lombard Bank Group said today that it made a pre-tax profit of €4.7m in the first half of this year, slightly up from the profit of €4.4m made in the same period last year.

“This result was achieved despite the impact of historically-low and, at times, even negative interest rates and more costly regulatory compliance requirements,” the bank said.

It said it had strong activity in most of its business lines but remained cognisant of its prudential limits.

MaltaPost, the bank’s main subsidiary, also achieved its objectives and had a profit before tax of 9.8% during the first six months of its financial year. The results for the Bank in 2016 had included a one-time significant item which amounted to €1.3m and was included under Other Operating Income.

Profit attributable to equity holders was €2.7m (H1 2016: €2.5m) while group operating income reached €26.8m (H1 2016: €23.9m).

Customer deposits stood at €713.6m, down from €721.6m in the first half of last year.
Loans and advances to customers stood at €390.9m compared to €343.5m in the first half of last year.

Impairment allowances increased by €0.8m (H1 2016: €2.1m).

“The bank increased Impairment Allowances to €24.6m thereby hedging against any possible adverse developments in its lending activity, in line with its prudential financial management practices. Given the high level of tangible security held against the loan portfolio as well as an overall satisfactory asset quality, the Bank considers this level of provisioning to be adequate.”

Group Total Assets stood at €866.5m (FYE 2016: €862.7m).