Profits ‘Я’ Us

The alpha bankers had a good year. Profits for 2014 showed surprising strength by growing 9.13 percent year on year to LBP 2.8 trillion ($1.9 billion) for the 14 banks with deposits of over $2 billion each. Individual profit champions were BLOM Bank, at $29 billion the sector’s number two by assets, with $365 million, and sector leader Bank Audi, whose profits amounted to $350 million on assets of $42 billion. In terms of their shares in total alpha group profits, the two largest banks look like a tag team that is set apart from the other 12 alpha banks — just as they constitute a category of their own in terms of assets, deposits and lending power. According to sector monitor Bankdata, BLOM and Audi between the two booked a tad over 38 percent of profits in the alpha group, which on its part represents well over 80 percent of