Once again, these results show the top three listed Lebanese banksвЂ™ ability to maintain good growth and financial strength by pursuing conservative and cautious policies, given the exceptional circumstances still facing them. In this respect, for instance, ByblosвЂ™s Basel III capital adequacy ratio exceeded 18%, AudiвЂ™s coverage of non-performing loans by special and collective provisions and real guarantees stood at 175.4%, and BLOMвЂ™s non-performing loans ratio was only at 0.5%. As for Audi, its assets fell by 0.89% to $43.87 billion, with its loan portfolio increasing by 2.53% to $17.66 billion, while its shareholderвЂ™s equity rose by 3.34% to $3.82 billion.ДЄs important, the three banksвЂ™ performance also involved strong banking fundamentals. Assets at Byblos reached $21.79 billion, growing at 4.71%, and its loan portfolio increased by 2.01% to $5.28 billion, while its shareholderвЂ™s equity fell to $1.76 billion at a rate of 2.08%. BLOM BANK's balance sheet aggregates naturally benefited from its acquisition of the three HSBC Lebanon branches on. BLOM reported $31.32 billion in assets, growing by 6.13% from end of December 2016, and its loan portfolio grew by 7.41% to $7.69 billion, while its shareholderвЂ™s equity fell by 6.59% to $2.73 billion due to its recalling of preferred shares 2011. Growth was not limited to profits only, since it was also registered in key balance sheet items. This is demonstrated by BLOM BANK's cost-to-income ratio of 34.36%, the lowest of all three, followed by 54.47% for Bank Audi and 56.60% for Byblos Bank. BLOM BankвЂ™s effective performance can be attributed to its highly managerial and operational efficiency. The two other banks followed, with Bank AudiвЂ™s ROAcE at 13.00% and ROAA at 0.99%, and Byblos BankвЂ™s ROAcE at 7.06% and ROAA at 0.62%. BLOM BANK recorded the highest ROAcE at 16.66% and the highest ROAA at 1.54%. The profit performance of the three banks can also be seen from looking at profitability ratios, namely the rate of return on average common equity (ROAcE) and on average assets (ROAA), which measure the productivity to generate earnings from equity and assets. Byblos BankвЂ™s net profit ranked third, falling by 9.07% to $66.27 million. Bank Audi came second with net profit of $212.83 million, up by 5.36%. On an individual basis, BLOM BANK attained the highest level of operational, non-exceptional net profit of $233.53 million at end June 2017, growing by 3.03% on the same period in 2016. Aggregate operational, non-exceptional net profit increased to $512.63 million in the first half of 2017, growing by 2.18% from the same period in 2016.

The un-audited financial results of the three largest listed Lebanese banks (BLOM, Audi, and Byblos) for the first half of 2017 show that they have maintained their sustainable performance and growth, despite the continuing difficult operating conditions arising from the economic slowdown in Lebanon and political instability in neighboring countries. * Doe not include the exceptional profits of $95.22 million made from the sale of Bank AudiвЂ™s credit cards operations.

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