Our overall strategic objective for the next 12 months is to continue to maintain high levels of liquidity and capital adequacy whilst at the same time ensuring good levels of operating profitability.

We will continue to service our existing customers and traditional trade finance markets with a view to maintaining our franchise which we have successfully built over the years with our network of correspondent banks and exporters around the world. Furthermore, we will continue to adopt a conservative stance towards risk appetite following a dynamic and rigorous approach to credit risk management employed to process and manage selective short term and good credit quality letter of credit transactions. With regard to loans to customers we have some limited appetite in financing well secured trade finance working capital facilities and low leveraged unregulated short-term UK based property financing transactions. In adopting this strategy our Board acknowledges the direction set by our Chairman and the Board of consciously sacrificing marginal short-term profitability for the long-term sustainable resilience of our Bank in the UK.

We believe that our strong liquidity and capital positions, as overlaid by our cautious strategic direction and risk appetite, will keep us in good stead and well placed in dealing with any negative customer sentiment stemming from the as yet unresolved Lebanese crisis and in managing any Covid-19 led deterioration in credit risk from our traditional trade finance markets.