Commonwealth Bank yesterday released a very positive earnings report declaring $44 million in profits for the nine months to September 30, 2015, with total assets exceeding $1.5 billion.

“This positive third quarter earnings report reflects an increase of 12.2 per cent or $4.8 million above the $39.2 million in profits for the same period last year,” said president Ian Jennings. “But more importantly, these results demonstrate that our steadfast conservative approach to lending combined with vigilant oversight of operating expenses continues to serve our more than 6,000 shareholders well, in addition to the community as a whole.”

Jennings credited dedicated staff, controlled credit risk and prudent operating practices with helping the bank report these results. However, he added serious economic challenges persist.

“Continuing high unemployment coupled with increasing costs including the introduction of VAT and a substantial $5 million hike in business license fees last year plus expenses related to loan impairment are challenges we have to overcome as we search for new and innovative ways to do things that were a lot easier to do a decade ago,” said Jennings.

“Notwithstanding those economic challenges, our total revenue increased 8 per cent or $8.4 million over 2014. We are cautiously optimistic over the remainder of 2015 as we do see encouraging signs within the bank as our nonperforming loan ratio of 4.09 per cent continues to significantly outperform the industry average of 14.84 per cent at September 2015, as reported by The Central Bank of The Bahamas. The Bank also maintains strong capital and liquidity ratios with capital adequacy in excess of 27 per cent and liquidity ratio above 34 per cent. These ratios are well in excess of Central Bank’s requirements of 17 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively making Commonwealth Bank both financially strong and stable.”