REPUBLIC BANK SUBSIDIARY Barbados National Bank (BNB) emerged the most profitable in Barbados last year, after three consecutive years of growth.

With commercial banks increasing their profits from $132.3 million in 2004 to $139.7 million in 2005, BNB recorded the highest earnings of the six in the country – $39.7 million, according to the recently released PricewaterhouseCoopers Barbados Banking Industry 2005 Performance Highlights.

BNB's increase was followed by Royal Bank of Canada with $36.8 million and Bank of Nova Scotia with $34 million .

Another performance highlight was that of the Bermudan-owned Butterfield Bank which "turned itself around from its decrease in the prior year, experiencing an increase in 2005 from $1.5 million to $3.3 million".

When it came to return on assets, the top performer in 2005 was Royal Bank of Canada which posted 2.69 per cent, followed by the Bank of Nova Scotia with 2.52 per cent and Barbados National Bank with 2.26 per cent. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, FirstCaribbean had the lowest return on assets at 0.73 per cent.

On the issue of cash resources, FirstCaribbean and Royal Bank accounted for the majority of the industry's total cash resources. (GE)