Bank of South Pacific Ltd. posted a year-over-year rise in net profit for the first quarter ended March 31.
The lender's net profit after tax for the quarter rose to 197 million Papua New Guinean kina from 170 million kina in the year-ago quarter.
Net interest income climbed to 332.9 million kina from 309.3 million kina, while total income increased to 504 million kina from 481 million kina.
Impairment costs rose year over year to 18 million kina from 7 million kina.
As of March 31, net interest margin stood at 7.38%, down from 7.44% as of March 31, 2017.
The bank's provisions to loans ratio for the quarter was 4.8%, down from 4.9% in the first quarter of 2017.
As of March 31, the capital adequacy ratio clocked in at 25.5%, up from 25.1% as of March 31, 2017.
The bank declared a final dividend of 91 Papua New Guinean toea per share for 2017, up from the prior year's dividend of 79 toea per share.
Including an interim dividend of 32 toea per share, the bank's total dividend for the year came to 1.23 kina per share, up from 1.04 kina per share for 2016.
The final dividend will be paid on June 22 to shareholders on record as of June 8.
As of May 25, US$1 was equivalent to 3.26 Papua New Guinean kina.
