The Bank of South Pacific has announced a consolidated operating profit after tax of $572m for the 2018 financial year.

This is an increase of 11.5 percent when compared to 2017 as the operating profit after tax was $472.7m.

In a market announcement, it says total assets for the Group increased by three percent or approximately $424.8m to $14.39b driven by good growth in the loan book across all countries.

Loan book growth amounted to $0.825b from increased lending in PNG in corporate, SME and housing loans sectors, strong growth in Fiji and uplift across most other countries.

The Group’s revenue have increased 8.4% during the year.

Group chair, Sir Kostas Constantinou says despite modest economic growth in most of the countries in which BSP operates – they again recorded positive profit increases for 2018.