Bahrain International Bank (BIB) has reported a 7 per cent fall in 1995 half-year profits, which the bank attributes to a drop in interest income due to higher short-term interest rates. Profits fell to $7.1 million in June 1995, compared with $7.6 million in June 1994. However, the bank reported a doubling of non-interest income to $4.4 million during the period. 'Although slightly down on last year's result, we remain comfortably ahead of our own internal budget,' BIB's chief executive, Robin McIlvenny, said in a statement. Assets fell 3 per cent to $570 million between June 1994-June 1995, mainly due to a contraction of the bank's investment securities portfolio. Loans and advances doubled to $90 million.

The London-based UBAF Bank has reported profits 70 per cent higher in the first six months of 1995 at £9.4 million ($15 million), compared with the same period last year. The bank says profits were boosted by buoyant trading conditions in its main markets and the recovery of bad loans worth £5 million ($8 million). The bank expects a further improvement in bad debt recoveries in the second half of the year. Activity in the bank's key markets in the Mashreq and Maghreb countries has been improving steadily this year, and the UBAF office in Beirut, set up in 1994, has begun generating new business, the bank says.