Bank Leumi le-Israel BM reported second-quarter net income due to shareholders of 876 million Israeli shekels, down 9.7% from 970 million shekels a year ago.

EPS declined on a yearly basis to 57 agorot from 64 agorot. Return on equity for the quarter decreased to 11.3% from 13.7%.

Net interest income amounted to 2.17 billion shekels, up from 2.03 billion shekels in the second quarter of 2016. Commissions increased to 1.01 billion shekels from the year-ago 989 million shekels.

Noninterest financing income came in at 197 million shekels in the second quarter, compared with the year-ago 534 million shekels. Expenses for credit losses amounted to 42 million shekels, compared with income of 154 million shekels a year earlier.

For the first half, the Israeli lender posted net income due to shareholders of the bank of nearly 1.50 billion shekels, up 4.8% year over year from 1.43 billion shekels.

The bank's common equity Tier 1 ratio reached 11.21% at the end of June, compared with 11.15% as of Dec. 31, 2016. The leverage ratio stood at 6.93% at June-end, up from 6.77% at the end of 2016.

Bank Leumi said its board approved the distribution of about 175 million shekels in dividends, equivalent to 20% of the lender's net income for the second quarter. Shareholders will receive a dividend of approximately 11.50 agorot per share Sept. 11.

As of Aug. 14, US$1 was equivalent to 3.58 Israeli shekels.