Byblos Bank S.A.L. reported earnings results for the first half of 2018. For the period, Byblos Bank posted satisfactory net profits of USD 67 million, improving only slightly on the USD 66 million achieved during the same period of 2017. The stagnation in profitability is primarily due to the initial effects of the "double taxation" levied on the banking sector in Lebanon. This translated into an average return on common equity, as at end-June, of 7.13%, a modest improvement on the 7.06% recorded the previous year.