Bermuda’s banking sector reported a net profit of $48.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, reflecting a 65.3 per cent decrease compared with the previous quarter, according to the latest quarterly banking digest from the Bermuda Monetary Authority.

This decrease was mainly because of the reversal of deferred tax assets recognised in 2023, after the introduction of the corporate income tax.

The net interest income for Q4 was $186.3 million, down 2.6 per cent ($4.9 million), while non-interest income grew by 7 per cent (or $5.9 million) to $91.2 million over the same period.

The BMA also reported that the total banking income for the quarter amounted to $277.6 million, up 0.4 per cent.

Meanwhile, the distribution of loans and advances remained primarily concentrated in the real estate sector, accounting for 58.1 per cent of the total outstanding loans. This reflected a decrease of 3.3 percentage points from the previous quarter.

Personal mortgages made up 84 per cent of loans to the real estate sector. Loans to other financial institutions accounted for 20.6 per cent of the outstanding loans, reflecting a 2.8 per cent point increase over the quarter.

Lending to other businesses and services grew by 0.7 percentage points to 4 per cent of outstanding loans, while lending to other sectors was down 0.2 percentage points to 17.3 per cent over the quarter.

The BMA said the banking sector maintained a sound capital position with a risk-asset ratio at 26.5 per cent, common equity tier 1 ratio at 25.1 per cent and the leverage ratio at 7.8 per cent.

Total assets reported were $23.6 billion, a decrease of $0.4 billion over the quarter. That is attributed to decreases in interbank deposits of $1.1 billion and other assets by an increase of $0.8 billion in investments.