Number crunching the first quarter

At a time when the observation of global banking remains as interesting as ever, the first quarter of 2015 has seen Lebanese banks stay their course, at least as far as growth of profits of the country’s six publicly listed banks, which between them reported over $279 million in net profits for the period that ended March 31, 2015. Leader in unaudited Q1 profits was Bank Audi whose round $100 million figure put Blom Bank’s $91.2 million into second place. Audi claimed not only the top share of almost 36 percent in the group’s cumulative net income, but also led the pack in terms of profit growth at 17 percent when compared with the first quarter in 2014. Audi and Blom, Lebanon’s top banking pair, accounted for $191.2 million in net profits, or nearly 70 percent of the reported cumulative amount. Each bank’s results exceeded the combined profits of the