Maputo, Mozambique — Mozambique's second largest bank, BIM (International Bank of Mozambique)made a profit equivalent to 2.6 million US dollars last year, and was able todistribute dividends to its shareholders for the third year running.

Presenting the 200 results to reporters on Monday, the chairman of the BIM board of directors, Mario Machungo, said that last year there was an increase of 49 percent in total BIM assets, which now stand at 4,580 billion meticais (267 million dollars).

He said that there was an increase of 26 per cent in net credit granted, bringing this figure to 1,930 billion meticais (113 million dollars).

Machungo said that most of the profits would go into the bank's reserves, but 7.5 percent would be distributed as dividends to the shareholders, and 6.5 percent would go as bonuses to the bank's workers.

BIM is a new bank that was set up in 1995. It has proved highly successful, and is now established in all 11 provinces, with 32 branches (all of them fully computerised and on-line), and 528 workers.